Issue 30 - Feb. 2, 2016
Making the Rounds with Founding Dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson
community, unity, people and support concept - couple hands holding paper chain multiracial people over green background
Friends and Colleagues,                

Each month we invite community leaders to discuss a particular issue impacting our community's public health. Our most recent topic was on human trafficking -- a complex and growing problem in Las Vegas.
 
This complicated and tragic problem is not one our medical school can solve, or even tackle in its entirety but it is important our students know how to recognize victims and to help them receive the care and resources they need. Often these young women and men suffer from psychological abuse, malnutrition, venereal diseases, and stunted growth. If a physician doesn't recognize a patient's situation, he or she can innocently drive the patient away rather than provide the compassionate  care, counseling, and protection they need.
 
Our accreditation requires that we identify a set of social issues our educational program will address. Working with community leaders, including our community advisory board, we decided on these five:
  • Addiction (drug, alcohol, and tobacco)
  • Homelessness
  • Mental and behavioral health
  • Nutrition
  • Human trafficking
Our students will experience different aspects of these five subjects in a number of courses they will take throughout their medical training. One of them is "Nevada Community Service: Bridging the Gaps", which threads through the student's entire four-year curriculum. Students will be required to take the course two hours per week for the first three years. During their fourth year they will need to complete a month-long internship embedded in a community service agency. One objective of our MD Curriculum Educational Program is called, "The medical practice and its role in the community", which is designed to help students identify system-level processes to support quality improvement and patient safety; and to advocate for the improvement of public health outcomes through community engagement and the analysis of social determinants of health and disease.
 
L to R: Fatma Marouf, Stacey Cramer, AJ Holly Huth, Cassandra Martinez, Drs. Laura Culley and Ellen Cosgrove
It's essential our students learn how to advocate on behalf of their patients and their community. Future physicians will need to help their communities find solutions for the many social issues that often are the root cause of patient diseases. 
 
We are fortunate to have many organizations and individuals committed to helping Southern Nevadans. Several of which attended our community luncheon include:
  • Elynne Greene, Supervisor Victim Services Detail, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, (see Review-Journal story about the new Family Justice Center Elynne is heading up at METRO) 
  • Alexis Kennedy, Associate Professor, UNLV Department of Criminal Justice
  • Stacey Cramer, Program Director for SEEDS for HOPE, Salvation Army
  • Magann Jordan, Victim Witness Program Administrator, Office of the District Attorney
  • Dr. Lisa Durette, Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program at the University of Nevada School of Medicine
  • Lena Walther, Honorary Consul of Sweden to Nevada at Consulate of Sweden, and co-founder of the "Awareness is Prevention"
  • Fatma Marouf, Associate Professor of Law, UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, and Co-Director of the Immigration Clinic 
  • AJ Holly Huth, PREP Coordinator, and Cassandra Martinez, Outreach Coordinator, at the LGBTQ Center
  • Molly Latham, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada
  • Barbara Brents, Professor, UNLV Department of Sociology
  • Camille Naaktgboren, Biology Professor, College of Southern Nevada
  • Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue, Director Global Health and Implementation Research Initiatives, UNLV School of Community Health Sciences
I am proud to work alongside these dedicated individuals and I can't wait for our students to work alongside them as well.

Best wishes,
 

Barbara
Community Advisory Board Spotlight

Watch Warren Volker, MD, chairman and CEO, WellHealth Quality Care and vice chair of our community advisory board explain why UNLV School of Medicine is important to Southern Nevada residents in this video.

To view the video click the arrow in the center of the photo.
Check out our  website. It is packed with current information about the school's milestones and future goals, new team members, and novel aspects about our curriculum
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