Anthem expands its rural health scholarship program at EKU

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Kentucky Medicaid unit is expanding its rural scholarship program at Eastern Kentucky University "to grow the number of frontline workers in the eastern region of the state and increase access to care and improve health equity for those living in Kentucky’s rural areas," the company and the university said in a press release.

The fund of nearly $200,000 "will enable more students to provide care in underserved communities," the release said. "Anthem Medicaid launched the scholarship in August 2021, granting eight students the opportunity to pursue health education and eventually serve in Eastern Kentucky." This year’s scholarship recipients are Breanna Goble, a Johnson County native, and Sara Cornelison, a Madison County native.

In the Kentucky Hospital Association’s 2022 Workforce Survey Report, Kentucky hospitals reported more than 13,000 vacancies across 13 professional groups last year. "Nursing topped the list with 22% of all nursing positions unfilled, and another 14% of nurses near retirement," the release noted. 

Owensboro Health plans education facility for health professions

Google map locates business center where health-professions training facility will be housed.

Owensboro Health, which operates the largest hospital in Western Kentucky and owns two others in Greenville and Leitchfield, is planning to build a training facility for nurses and other medical professions.

The Commonwealth West Healthcare Workforce Innovation Center will be funded with $38 million in the state budget through the work of Rep. Suzanne Miles of Owensboro, chair of the House Republican Caucus, reports James Mayse of the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.

President and CEO Mark Marsh said his hope is to have the center ready to start operating by January in the company's business center at 25th and Frederica streets. It will train nurses, radiologists and professionals in fields such as behavioral health and community health, a press release said.

"Roughly, there area about 30 different disciplines" that will be taught at the facility, Marsh told the Messenger-Inquirer.

Courses will be taught by faculty members from nine colleges and universities, including Kentucky Wesleyan College and Brescia University of Owensboro, Owensboro Community and Technical College, Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville's nursing school.

Marsh said the institutions will create the curriculum with the advice of Owensboro Health, and students will get degrees from their parent universities. He said it could be possible for students to get degrees or certifications from more than one university.

The center will include both classroom space and "simulation labs," where students will practice being in patient rooms and operating rooms, Marsh said.

He said the facility "will also offer mathematics and science instruction to high school students, and it can teach classes through remote learning to high schools across western Kentucky," Mayse reports. "Marsh said the center will be a way for high school students to learn about health-care careers."

"I think a lot of kids slip through the cracks," he said. "It is imperative on us to create the enthusiasm and create the pathway" to a healthcare career.

The center is an effort to address anticipated shortages in healthcare workers. Its operations will be headed by Bart Darrell, former Kentucky Wesleyan president. "Darrell, an attorney who led KWC for five years until 2019, was named vice president" of the center, Mayse reports.

University of Pikeville says it will build Kentucky's third dental school with a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor

University of Pikeville website logo

The University of Pikeville plans to create Kentucky's third dental school with a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor's family foundation, the largest in the school's 133-year history.

UPike President Burton Webb announced the gift last Saturday during the private university's health-professions commencement.

“The foresight of a generous family giving to a university to establish a dental school is special,” Webb said. “This is another example of challenges being met and solved right here by those who call this area home. It’s also incredible that the university, this family and now a dental school will each have their roots right here in these mountains. It’s a great day to be a Bear!” The university's mascot is a bear.

Webb told the Appalachian News-Express of Pikeville that the proposed school would go through an accreditation process, similar to that for its Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kentucky College of Optometry, which will determine the project's timeline and size.

“Sometime before we started the optometry college, the university had done a feasibility study on the need for more dentists in Appalachia,” Webb told the newspaper. “At the behest of the family foundation we refreshed that study and it showed continued need. The gift is generous and we are deeply grateful.”

Kentucky's dental colleges are at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Pikeville is the seat of Pike County, Kentucky's easternmost, and is nearer to Charleston, W.Va. That state has one dental school, at West Virginia University in Morgantown, and Virginia has one, at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., just south of Cumberland Gap and Kentucky's southeast corner, is scheduled to open a dental school this fall.

Terry Dotson, chair of UPike's Board of Trustees, said in a news release, “The founding of a dental program in these mountains will lead to better healthcare outcomes for a historically medically underserved population. This institution, its students, faculty and staff are a driving force for health education in the commonwealth. The dental school will complete the circle of medical services for the region and the immediate area. The economic impact with the addition of more professional students will grow businesses throughout the entire community and the region. This will be a project that will take the time and talents of many partners locally and statewide.”

Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations David Hutchens said the anonymous donor “has a deep love for Appalachia and a passion for improving healthcare in our region. Their generosity will reverberate for generations, impacting not only the graduates of the program but also profoundly benefitting the lives of the countless patients they will serve for generations to come. This is a transformative gift, an act of deep love and devotion for this region. We are humbled by this generosity, thrilled to have this opportunity and ecstatic about this vision.”

Anthem funds scholarships for Eastern Kentucky health workers

By Leon Lamoreaux

President, Anthem Kentucky Medicaid

For generations, Kentucky’s rural communities have been built by families, separated by miles and miles from the nearest city. Those miles of separation are both a blessing and a burden. Families enjoy wide open spaces and a different pace of life, but amenities like hospitals and health specialists can be far from home. Visiting a doctor or hospital can be a challenge because of the distance and expense. Here in Kentucky, that distance and availability of healthcare resources put rural residents at a health disadvantage.

Today, Kentucky hospitals report a 10 to 40 percent vacancy rate of nursing positions, with the highest need found in rural areas. Health-care researchers estimate that Kentucky’s rural communities will need another 40 primary-care professionals to properly serve the population. That shortage translates to some 102,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in Kentucky who lack sufficient access to a primary care provider.

The Kentucky Center for Statistics estimates that Eastern Kentucky alone will require nearly 2,000 more nursing jobs by 2024 — less than three years from now.

Leon Lamoreaux

Kentuckians who live in rural communities deserve reliable access to adequate healthcare, and to meet those needs, we must expand the pipeline of healthcare professionals. That’s why Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is launching the Anthem Rural Medicine Scholarship program with two Eastern Kentucky educational institutions. By funding education for future healthcare workers, we can grow the number of practicing professionals in rural Kentucky, improve health outcomes and strengthen the communities we serve.

The scholarships at Hazard Community and Technical College and Eastern Kentucky University are drawn from new Anthem-funded endowments, which means the funds for supporting new health-care students will last for years, not just for the next few semesters.

Scholarship recipients are required to practice in a federally recognized shortage area for a minimum of three years post-graduation, creating primary care access to at least 7,500 rural Kentuckians each year.

Leslie County native Kimberly Caldwell was among the first scholarship recipients. “This scholarship will allow me to work toward my dreams to become a nurse, without having to worry about the financial burden that can come with getting an education,” said Ms. Caldwell.

I was honored to meet Ms. Caldwell and congratulate her on serving the region she loves.

Rural Kentucky is full of unparalleled natural beauty as well as thousands of hardworking families and individuals who treasure their small towns. By funding education for future rural health providers, Anthem is helping to build brighter futures for all Kentucky families — no matter where they live.

Lamoreaux runs Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Kentucky Medicaid plan, which serves more than 160,000 beneficiaries.

Today: 65 deaths reported, 2nd most of pandemic; 4,849 new cases, 3rd most; hospital and positive-test numbers at new highs

State Department for Public Health data and table, adapted by Kentucky Health News; for a larger version, click on it. Some hospitals have staffing shortages, so not all beds are available.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

A huge spike in Covid-19 deaths was just one of the fast-worsening numbers of the coronavirus pandemic in Kentucky Thursday.

The state reported 65 deaths, the second most of any day in the pandemic; 4,849 new cases of the virus, the third highest; a record number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals, and the highest valid percentage yet of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days.

The deaths reported Thursday were just short of the previous record of 69, reported Jan. 28, and far exceeded numbers of recent weeks. Deaths are not reported immediately, and go through a confirmation process. There have been no reporting anomalies, and 57 of the 65 deaths occurred in August, said Susan Dunlap, communications director for the state health cabinet.

Some deaths are discovered through an ongoing audit of death certificates. Dunlap provided a list showing two each were in November, May, June and July. Among the August fatalities, two were in their 40s, nine in their 50s, 16 in their 60s, 21 in their 70s, five in their 80s and six in their 90s, according to the list.

Kentucky Health News graph; to enlarge, click on it.

In the two weeks ended Wednesday, the state averaged 10.5 deaths per day. The average is now 14, and the seven-day average is 19.7. The numbers prompted one of the most urgent and cutting Facebook videos yet from Gov. Andy Beshear.

"We are seeing and will see significant death moving forward, but we can do something about it," the governor said. "You know, there's a saying, when you can do something to stop devastation and you don't, that saying is about Nero fiddling while Rome burns. I'm sure there are some that would say it's Nero's individual liberty to just fiddle while everything burns down, but I think you got a responsibility to protect the people around them. So folks, get vaccinated, wear a mask, avoid large indoor gatherings. protect yourself, protect your family."

Beshear's pleas for vaccination have gone largely unheeded in the last three months. Daily vaccinations have generally increased in the last few weeks, as the threat from the virus has increased, but are still far below the levels seen in early spring, and they pale in comparison to pace of the pandemic.

"We had fewer people vaccinated during this report than we had come down with Covid," Beshear said. Today's vaccine doses will be reported tomorrow; yesterday, 12,294 doses were given. The seven-day average is 13,077 a day.

The 4,849 new virus cases raised the state's seven-day average to 3,829 per day. Thursday's number ranked behind only Jan. 6 and 7, when 5,742 and 4,911 new cases were reported. Then, about 12 percent of cases were in Kentuckians 18 and younger; they are more susceptible to the Delta variant of the virus, so now are a much bigger share of cases; their share Thursday was 31.3%.

"Today's Covid report is heartbreaking. . . . more kids testing positive now than ever before," Beshear said. "Our hospitals are overrun." 

Kentucky hospitals reported 2,074 Covid-19 patients, 60 more than Wednesday, but the number in intensive-care units fell by 40, to 549, and the number of ICU patients on ventilators remained the same, 338.

Five of the state's 10 hospital regions reported more than 80% of their ICU beds occupied; the Barren River region had the highest percentage being used for Covid-19 patients, 44%. The effective capacity is not as large as the reports indicate, because some beds are not staffed due to staffing shortages.

The University of Kentucky shut down five of its 42 operating rooms due to its Covid-19 patient load, mainly to make sure beds are staffed and the Chandler Medical Center can continue to fill its role as a major trauma center. Baptist Health Richmond stopped elective procedures for at least two weeks.

The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days is 13.16%, the highest since testing became readily available.

Kentucky retained the nation's fifth highest infection rate over the last 14 days, as reported by The New York Times. States with higher rates are Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee. The rate on the state's daily report was 79.65 per 100,000 residents; counties with rates more than double that rate were Clay, 245.5; Bell, 191.5; Whitley, 188.7; Owsley, 174.7; Jackson, 167.2; and Magoffin, 160.9. All are in Eastern Kentucky. The next six are LaRue, 156.8; Laurel, 153.2; Taylor, 149.1; Allen, 141.4; Breckinridge, 138.1; and Carroll, 137.1.

Other pandemic news: Kentucky is seeing more "breakthrough" cases among vaccinated people. Revised figures for July showed that the ratio of cases in unvaccinated people compared to those in vaccinated people was 3.7 to 1, not the 5 to 1 initially reported on Aug. 2.

State Dept. for Public Health chart; click it to enlarge.

The numbers reflect a national trend, but the vaccines still prevent serious disease and hospitalization in the great majority of cases. According to the state Department for Public Health, from March 1 through Aug, 18, Kentucky hospitals admitted 411 fully vaccinated people with Covid-19; among those not fully vaccinated, the Covid-19 admission count was 3,819. That's 9.7% to 90.3%. 

• A new study showed that a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine significantly increases protection against the virus. Booster shots might be available next month.
• Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told the Fox News Channel Tuesday the company is planning for a vaccine-resistant variant to emerge: “Every time that the variant appears in the world, our scientists are getting their hands around it. They are researching to see if this variant can escape the protection of our vaccine. We haven’t identified any yet but we believe that it is likely that one day, one of them will emerge.” He said his company should be able to develop vaccines against such strains within 95 days of identification.
• "Federal officials are admitting a hard truth: they don’t know exactly when — and how — this wave will end," The Washington Post reports. “Delta came along, and it's almost like we have a new pandemic now,” Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, told the Post. “Everything we thought we knew about covid-19 has to be revised.”
  The Post reports that projections of cases for the next month "are all over the map, and Collins conceded such models make assumptions about human behavior that researchers haven’t been good at predicting throughout the pandemic." He said, “I think we're in a world of trouble for at least the next couple of months, but exactly what the shape of that trouble looks like, I can’t tell you.”
• Transylvania University in Lexington joined Berea College to become the second Kentucky institution of higher education to require students and employees to be vaccinated.

Beshear says Ky. faces character test in suppressing virus so schools can open safely on his Sept. 28 date; some go ahead

Graph illustrates previously reported new weekly high in new coronavirus cases.
State graph, adapted by Kentucky Health News; for a larger version, click on it

This story has been updated.

By Mary Meehan and Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear continued to implore Kentuckians to wear masks and keep their distance so all schools can safely resume in-person instruction Sept. 28, the date he has recommended.

During his daily briefing Monday, Beshear repeatedly referred to the battle against the novel coronavirus as a chance to define the character of the state and its people.

“What type of character do we show right now? Do we make the hard decisions? You know, my faith teaches me that doing the right thing is supposed to be hard,” he said, adding a bit later, “I believe that our character as Kentuckians is second to none, but it’s time we step up and prove it.”

Beshear announced 376 new cases of the virus, including 54 under the age of 18 – one way he reminds his audience of the risks of opening schools to in-person instruction at a time when the share of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus in the last seven days: 5.8 percent. A rate above 5% is problematic, health experts say.

He noted 17 new cases in Warren County, where the county school board was preparing to voted 3-2 on the issue Monday evening to stick with in-person classes starting Aug. 24, with students alternatively attending two days a week. One Warren case was a 16-year-old, presumably a high-school-student.

“We have had so many individuals under 18 in Warren County test positive,” he said. “This is the number-two county that the White House [Coronavirus Task Force] is concerned about. The White House believes they have over a 10 percent positivity rate. I hope and pray that Warren County will do the work, just like we are, wearing these facial coverings and making good decisions to make sure that we are wise, that we promote public health and safety.”

Beshear said a decline in cases should be apparent before children are sent back to in-person classes. He reiterated that a delay gives Kentucky a chance to learn what has and hasn’t worked in other states, noting that one Georgia school district has quarantined more than 1,000 students.

“I don’t want to experiment with our kids,” he said, “and there are things we can learn from every day from states with schools that are open.”

Some school districts are disregarding Beshear’s recommendation. Green County opened as scheduled Monday, and the Kentucky School Boards Association said it appears to be the first public district to reopen to in-person learning, report Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“Green County Supt. Will Hodges said that of the district’s 1,700 students, 80.69 percent opted to attend classes in person and 19.31 percent decided to begin school online,” they write. “Most parents had told the district they wanted their children in the classroom rather that online, Hodges said.” He told the Herald-Leader that the school system set out standards for protecting students and staff based on the level of active cases in the community, and students are being encouraged, but not required, to wear masks throughout the day when it isn’t possible to keep six feet away from others.

University of Kentucky students returned to class Monday.
(Photo by Silas Walker, Lexington Herald-Leader)

Beshear said he would announce Tuesday how the state will deal with virus outbreaks in schools. He said state and local school officials and local health departments need to keep families informed of cases in their school while protecting the privacy of individuals. “We have got to make sure that we don’t rely on just a health department talking to a family,” he said.

And to make sure it’s safe for all schools to teach students in person on Sept. 28, “We’ve got to do everything we can,” Beshear said. “If we come together, if we wear the face coverings, we follow the guidelines, we can get it done.”

Health Commissioner Steven Stack warned that crucial supplies are becoming harder to procure, which may cause the state to regress in an area where it has done well, the amount of testing. Politico reports that such shortages are even greater at smaller and poorer hospitals and medical facilities across the country, Tucker Doherty reports.

Stack said, “The demand for the tests continues to grow more quickly than the resources to provide the tests. So we are likely to be at some kind of plateau in number of tests for a while, but it’s going to be a challenge just to maintain the plateau because a lot of other states are going to compete now more intensely to try to get these resources.”

​In other covid-19 news Monday:

• The state reported five new covid-19 deaths Monday, raising its toll to 818. They were an 84-year-old man from Boyd County; a 91-year-old man from Calloway County; an 87-year-old woman from Franklin County; a 63-year-old man from Henry County; and a 75-year-old woman from Oldham County.
• New-case numbers on Mondays are often relatively low, as testing labs catch up from the weekend. Counties with more five new coronavirus cases were Jefferson, 124; Fayette, 51; Madison, 20; Warren, 17; Oldham, 9; Campbell, 7; and Christian, Franklin, Kenton, and Scott, with 6 each.
• Lexington-Fayette County Health Department spokesperson Kevin Hall explained how it will handle complaints that Beshear’s mask mandate isn’t being enforced. “When we receive a complaint, we respond to the facility (typically within 48-72 hours) to observe and to talk with management. We try to provide education and information, particularly since this is still fairly new to people. If we see signs of violations, we issue a notice and follow up in five days. At the follow-up visit, if they continue to show signs of violations, a citation will be issued. They begin at $50, then $75 on the second and $100 for each additional.”
  
• University of Kentucky students returned to spaced-out classrooms, masks and hand sanitizer in the vending machines, Rick Childress reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The local health department reported that at least 240 students had tested positive and are quarantining in the county. That number does not include students who may choose to isolate outside the county.
• UK reported a scam text message that told recipients, “you tested POSITIVE for COVID-19” and telling them to quarantine for 14 days and get three negative test results before returning to in-person classes. A UK official wrote, “UK Health Corps will never alert someone of a positive test result via text message or email.” 
• The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill said Monday that it will pivot to all-remote instruction for undergraduates after three residence halls and a fraternity house reported clusters of coronavirus cases in the first week of the fall term, Nick Anderson reports for The Washington Post. "After only one week of campus operations, with growing numbers of clusters and insufficient control over the off-campus behavior of students (and others), it is time for an off-ramp," the dean of public health said.
• Chris Quintana reports for USA Today on some of the financial reasons that are driving universities to open. 
• The state and UK HealthCare plan to offer free drive-up coronavirus testing at two sites beginning Aug. 24. One site will be on the far southern edge of campus; the other will be on the grounds of Eastern State Hospital, on UK’s Coldstream Research Campus on Newtown Pike near Interstates 64 and 75. An appointment is necessary to get a test. People can register at: lexington.wildhealth.com. The sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.
• Mark Carter, who runs the program to track down and notify Kentuckians who have been exposed to people infected with the virus, will talk about its purpose and importance, and misconceptions about it, in a Zoom webinar for the University of Louisville Trager Institute at 10 a.m. Aug. 18. Here is the Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/884298617. 
• Stat reports on what we know about the virus, seven months into the pandemic, and what questions remain. They write about covid-19 and kids; the safest settings; why some people test positive for the virus long after they recover, and if it matters; covid's lingering effects among "long-haulers;" vaccine development; what it means to be asymptomatic; transmission through surfaces; immunity; mutations of the virus; and why some people get sick from it and some don't. 
• People infected with the virus do not necessarily have immunity for three months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an Aug. 16 update, stating, "At this time, we do not know if someone can be re-infected." While people can test positive for up to three months after diagnosis and not be infectious, that doesn't mean they are immune from getting it again during that time, CDC said.

Career-college CEO says to take a look at health care careers

By Bruce Kepley

In the mid-1990s, I started and ran a business that trained workforces on specific computer software. Large companies would hire us to come in and train their entire workforce to use the new tools the company had purchased.

It was interesting work and we were good at it, but a small segment of our business was even more interesting to me. Our industry called them “career-changers.”

These were individuals who wanted to do more than just learn a specific piece of software that they would use at their existing job. They wanted to retool their career for a newly emerging, more tech-savvy economy. The students wanted to become software developers or engineers.

Each of those students had a different personal story, but they were united in realizing that economic shifts represent opportunity for those who are willing to keep learning.

Along the way, I’ve shifted too. I moved away from workforce training, to career-oriented colleges. And I’m now the majority owner of MedQuest College, which is focused on health-career related occupations. But the students we work with today have much in common with those students I met 30 years ago.

The economic tides have shifted several times since the mid-90s. The dot.com bubble came and went. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 caused huge shifts in our national priorities and interests. Then, in 2008 we saw the beginning of the Great Recession.

What I saw each time was greater interest in education and higher enrollment at colleges like MedQuest. According to the U.S. census, enrollment jumped 29 percent at two-year colleges during the Great Recession.

Our current economic downturn is unlike anything any of us have experienced. The future is filled with many uncertainties. Unemployment has skyrocketed — and it’s hard to know how quickly those jobs can come back.

But this month, MedQuest and other colleges — proprietary, private and public — will be starting new classes. Those classes will be filled with students who see education as a path into a brighter future. At MedQuest in particular, the students tell us that by preparing for a career in health care they are choosing to be part of the solution in a time of uncertainty.

When responsible colleges see sudden growth in interest or enrollment, they worry about outcomes — will all these new students be both dedicated to finish and will there be jobs waiting for them when they are done? But my experience in previous downturns makes me confident that, in fact, education is part of the way we pull ourselves out of economic slumps.

For the high-school seniors who graduated this month, for the people who are watching health-care heroes and wondering how they can become a part of that critical industry, and for those who have suddenly experienced reduced hours, furloughs or layoffs, I recommend that you take a moment to explore higher education options. Whether you’re adding a new skill or credential, or revamping your career entirely, this may be the best time to act. That’s a way all of us can help build a better economy.

Bruce Kepley is CEO of MedQuest College in Louisville. This first appeared in the Courier Journal.

To thwart coronavirus, an undisclosed number of Centre College students are quarantined after returning from China

The building called Old Centre (A-M photo by Ben Kleppinger)

Several Centre College students who recently returned to the Danville campus from China have been quarantined as a precaution against the fast-spreading and sometimes deadly coronavirus, reports Robin Hart of the Danville Advocate-Messenger. 

Centre officials said in the first week of February that they were “keeping a watchful eye” on the students, as well as other students who studied abroad during the school's winter break, Hart reports. “On Saturday we received a recommendation from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control, asking that those with recent travel history from China be isolated for a period of 14 days after their arrival,” Centre spokesman Michael Strysick said Feb. 12. President John Roush told students and staff Feb. 9, “This is 14 days from an individual’s time of arrival, not 14 days from today. . . . I want to be very clear that no one has the coronavirus or even shows any symptoms.”

Hart writes, "Because of medical privacy laws, Strysick said he could not say how many students were quarantined. However, he did say that students will be able to continue with their classes."

Save the date: Friday, Nov. 15, to attend Covering Substance Abuse and Recovery, a workshop for journalists, in Ashland

Macy

Covering Substance Abuse and Recovery: A Workshop for Journalists will be held in Ashland Nov. 15 by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

Burton

The workshop is designed to help rural journalists cover a difficult subject, but one that needs covering to help their communities deal not only with substance abuse, but to know how recovery is possible.

More details and online registration will be available soon, but several award-winning speakers who have been leaders in covering these topics in Appalachia and adjoining areas will speak:

• Beth Macy, award-winning author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, just released in paperback.
• Terry DeMio and Liz Dufour, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists from the Cincinnati Enquirer; DeMio has been the newspaper’s opioid beat reporter for five years, and Dufour is the lead visuals person on the beat and the Pulitzer-winning series, "Seven Days of Heroin."
• Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for revealing opioid distribution patterns in West Virginia.
• Sharon Burton, editor publisher of the Adair County Community Voice in Columbia, a national leader in substance-abuse coverage by small newspapers.
• Kentucky Justice Secretary John Tilley, who is a former legislator, attorney and television journalist.

Attendees will learn about the issues from a variety of experts in the field including award-winning journalists, authors, researchers, officials and people in recovery. The goals are to make sure they:

• Understand the depth and breadth of the problem and how it affects local communities
• Know how to get reliable data and other local information for reporting
• Develop local, state, regional and national sources for stories and story ideas
• Hear reporters explain how they cover the problem and the people affected by it
• Appreciate the role of local news media in reducing the stigma that inhibit local action

Research by Oak Ridge Associated Universities has shown that the stigma attached to drug use and addiction are major obstacles to news coverage of the problem, which makes it harder for communities to find solutions.

The workshop will begin with a welcome reception on Thursday evening, Nov. 14, and run all day Nov. 15. Online registration will be required, with an early-bird registration rate of $50 to cover meals, snacks, and materials. Please contact Al Cross with any questions: al.cross@uky.edu.

Philanthropist Christy Brown gives U of L $5 million for institute to study environmental conditions that affect human health

Christy Brown, U of L President Neeli Benapudi and Dr. Aruni
Bhatnagar, director of the Envirome Institute. (U of L photo)

With a $5 million gift from leading Louisville philanthropist Christina Lee Brown, through the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation, the University of Louisville has established an Envirome Institute in its School of Medicine to "develop integrated knowledge of the environmental determinants of health."

The name of the institute is not missing three letters. The word "envirome" is a knock-off from "genome," which is the "map of our genetic code, revealing how our genes relate to our health, and potentially our susceptibility to disease," the university says in a press release. "Built on a new vision of health, the Envirome Institute pioneers actionable knowledge about all forms of health and how they are affected by the environment beyond genomics. This gift from Brown catalyzes existing resources and adds new capabilities toward the ambitious, long-term mission of studying the human envirome with the same precision and rigor applied to decoding the human genome."

What's an envirome? Wikipedia says it "includes all of the environmental conditions required for successful biological life that affect human health. In genetic epidemiology, an envirome the total set of environmental factors, both present and past, that affect the state, and in particular the disease state, of an organism."

The Envirome Institute is the successor to the university's Kentucky Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development. "Like KIESD, the institute will support research and applied scholarship, teaching and educational outreach activities, but with greater emphasis on community engagement and health," the university said. "The Envirome Institute is the first institute dedicated to the study of the human envirome. Taking a holistic approach to researching how the human-environment interrelationship impacts peoples’ lives, the institute will build on the pioneering work of Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar, the institute’s director, in the field of environmental cardiology. The institute will incorporate community engagement and citizen science to introduce a singular, new approach to the study of health."

The university has also created a Center for Healthy Air, Water, and Soil as part of the Envirome Institute. Brown had previously created a private nonprofit called the Institute for Healthy Air, Water and Soil. Its work will shift to the center, which "will support outreach activities to promote collaborations and interactions with the community for information exchange, partnership in scientific studies, dissemination of environmental information to the community and consultation by the community on issues relevant to the environment and health," the university said.

At Pikeville building dedication, national optometry leader says new college will be a national leader in training of optometrists

UPike Health Professions Education Building

The University of Pikeville dedicated its newest facility, the Health Professions Education Building, Oct. 27. The building houses the school's new Kentucky College of Optometry, the only such college in Kentucky, and UPike’s growing nursing program.

“Our nursing students are enjoying their new space in the HPEB,” said Karen Damron, Ph.D., dean of the Elliott School of Nursing. “They utilize study areas that were not available prior to moving in the facility. In addition, the faculty offices are highly professional and conducive to meeting with current and prospective students. This new building will be key in the continued expansion of our nursing program.”

U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers told more than 600 people at the dedication that UPike is helping close the gap on health disparities in Central Appalachia. “Today Central Appalachia has the highest rates of preventable blindness in the nation,” he said. “So what does UPike do? They build a state-of-the-art facility with the very best equipment, cutting-edge technology and a first-class team.”

The $72 million for the building came from grants by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission, and a low-interest stimulus loan from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Administration, according to a university news release.

ARC Federal Co-Chair Earl Gohl said, “It’s a beautiful day in Appalachia because this building and school are going to help support and move forward the culture of health in Appalachia.”

The news release noted that Kentucky is one of only three states in the nation in which optometrists have the ability to perform laser and minor surgical procedures. That is a broad scope of practice authorized by those states' legislatures after lobbying from optometrists.

William T. Reynolds, secretary-treasurer of the American Optometric Association, said the college is developing a national model for access to vision care in rural communities.

“They will be the drivers of optometric education for years to come,” he said. “This school will be showing the entire nation how to properly educate and train students in this new frontier of our profession.”

The college emphasizes rural optometry and projects that more than 30 percent of its graduates will practice in medically under-served areas of Appalachia. It operates rural clinics that will serve an estimated 18,000 unique patients annually, the university said.

Nursing professor at Pikeville moves up to dean

Karen Damron

Karen Damron, an associate professor in the Elliott School of Nursing at the University of Pikeville, is the new dean of the school.

Damron was raised in El Paso moving to Pikeville in 1993, and has taught full-time at the university since 1998, a news release said. Before becoming an educator, Damron worked full-time as an RN in obstetrics and neonatal intensive care in hospitals in Texas and Maine. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, an M.S. from Bellarmine University and a B.S. from the University of Texas at El Paso, all in nursing. She and her husband, Larry, live in Pikeville and have four sons and three grandchildren.

In 2010, the Mellon Foundations named Damron a fellow to the Salzburg Seminar in Austria. She earned UPike’s William Wade and Helen Record Walker Teaching Excellence Award in 2014 and was awarded a pre-doctoral faculty fellowship by the Appalachian College Association for the 2015-2016 academic year. Her research interests include perinatal smoking and factors that impact a woman’s smoking status in pregnancy.

UK medical school at Bowling Green, similar to deal with Ashland and Morehead hospitals, is aimed at addressing doctor shortage

The Medical Center and Western Kentucky University
already cooperate on other medical-education programs.

Officials and civic leaders in Southern Kentucky have high hopes for a medical school partnership between the University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University and The Medical Center at Bowling Green, Deborah Highland reports for the Bowling Green Daily News. UK has a similar partnership with King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, and Morehead State University, also aimed at the state's physician shortage.

The Bowling Green deal "is poised to help alleviate a physician shortage in the region, allow WKU faculty access to medical research opportunities, demonstrate a community commitment to smart growth and help keep the area's best and brightest in Warren County," Highland writes. "Medical school students will attend classes here in Bowling Green in a building on the campus of The Medical Center. The medical degree will be conferred by UK, and a certain number of slots in the program here will be available first to WKU students," starting with 30 in 2018.

Dr. Don Brown, The Medical Center's director of medical education, told Highland, "It's not every day that you're able to get a medical school in your community and this is a big accomplishment. . . . The closest medical school to us is Louisville or Vanderbilt" University, in Nashville. "We lose a lot of pre-med students to medical schools and they go away. We know if a Kentuckian trains in Kentucky, he or she is likely to stay in Kentucky."

Connie M. Smith, president and CEO of Med Center Health, told Highland in an email that the school will be in "new construction" on The Medical Center campus, not in the Health Sciences Complex at WKU, which houses the university's nursing and physical-therapy programs.

"Kentucky, like many other rural states across the nation, faces a shortage of physicians who are desperately needed to care for our aging population," Smith said. "This problem will only increase in scope if creative solutions are not identified."

Smith added, "We are already witnessing a level of excitement and intrigue throughout our medical community in regards to this project. Most physicians feel a responsibility for training the next generation, and they take this responsibility very seriously. We believe the medical school will bring about an unprecedented level of commitment to delivering the best in evidence-based care to patients throughout our region."

WKU Provost David Lee said, "This is a part of the state that needs more doctors, and it needs more medical professionals of all kinds,"I think this is only going to enhance the health care that is available to citizens of south-central and Western Kentucky."

KentuckyOne Health will no longer manage U of L hospital; executive that helped do the deal gets $1.5 million to go away

The University of Louisville and KentuckyOne Health are ending the joint operating agreement under which KentuckyOne has managed the University Hospital and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

"The decision ended a 3-year-old arrangement that was created to stabilize the faltering teaching hospital's finances and give KentuckyOne, a system made up of the former Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and St. Joseph Health System, a top-notch hospital," reports Joseph Gerth of The Courier-Journal. "The plan was for KentuckyOne to sink more than $1.4 billion into the hospital over 20 years But KentuckyOne, beset by financial troubles of its own, faltered in operating the hospital. It laid off several top executives in September, and in 2014 laid off 500 employees statewide while eliminating another 200 unfilled positions."

"Following a state investigation this summer showing that staffing shortages at UofL Hospital were compromising patient safety and care, KentuckyOne and UofL traded barbs in the press in October, as the university demanded more than $46 million in back payments from KentuckyOne Health," notes Joe Sonka of Insider Louisville. "The company countered with a lengthy response questioning UofL’s commitment to their joint operating agreement and the university’s transparency regarding how much of KentuckyOne’s $524 million in financial contributions have been invested."

Dr. Gregory Postel, U of L's interim executive vice president of health affairs, said the university and KentuckyOne would redefine their "academic affiliation agreement" to clarify KentuckyOne's role and faculty involvement at Jewish Hospital and the Frazier Rehabilitation Center. "The goal here is not to end the relationship, but to change it," Postel said.

Gerth reports, "He said what is happening is not a 'divorce' but that the management arrangement is being unwound."

David Dunn

Also on Tuesday, U of L health executive David Dunn, "whom the FBI investigated for alleged misuse of funds, will receive $1.15 million from the institution to relinquish his tenured position," Insider Louisville reports. Dunn helped design the deal with KentuckyOne, "according to Dr. Peter Hasselbacher, emeritus professor of medicine at UofL and president of the Kentucky Health Policy Institute," which first reported Dunn's departure.

"Dunn had been on paid leave for more than a year, since The Courier-Journal reported that the FBI was looking into allegations that he and two others had misspent federal grant money," Gerth reports. "The school did not negotiate a 'clawback' provision that would allow U of L to take back the money in the event that Dunn is found to have violated the law during his tenure there." Dunn made $809,000 a year, reports Kate Howard of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

UK researchers develop video game to teach agricultural safety to college and high-school students

Screen shot of "Hazard Ridge" video game

Researchers at the University of Kentucky are using a video game to educate young people about the dangers of agriculture, a line of work that has one of the highest rates of workplace fatalities in the U.S., Olivia McCoy reports for UKnow.

Since 2013 researchers at the UK College of Education and the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, in UK's College of Public Health, have been teaching agriculture students and high-school students ag safety using a 3-D game called Hazard Ridge, which "simulates an injury that has occurred in a small rural town where teens are disappearing and the town is going bankrupt," McCoy writes.

"Players serve as the investigator of this issue and learn how agricultural injuries have negative effects on the town’s economy and citizens," McCoy writes. "The game teaches investigative skills and educates on how to conduct a financial analysis of injury."

Jennifer Watson, research coordinator for the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, "said one of the goals for the game is to 'overcome the culture of comfort'," McCoy writes. Watson told McCoy, "Spending their entire lives around dangerous equipment lulls those working and living on farms into a false sense of safety and lessens their belief that they are at risk for injury." She said preventive measures, such as the game, reduces the risk of injury or death. (Read more)