Cell Biology

Building Cells from the Bottom Up – The Scientist

designed by erin lemieux

In pursuit of a deeper understanding of cellular life, biologists use patterns in data as a springboard for probing specific elements in complex systems. Delete a gene here; express a protein there; and through these meticulous molecular manipulations, the components necessity and sufficiency emerges, bringing clues about the nuts and bolts of cellular functioning. In recent decades, scientists from fields outside of the life sciences have entered the biological arena, bringing with them a potpourri of alternative perspectives and approaches for studying complex systems.

Cees Dekker, a biophysicist at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), is part of a growing community of synthetic biologists who are exploring the design principles of living systems by engineering cells from the bottom up.1 Just by engineering it, you are faced with certain problems that you didnt realize when you were studying the system top-down, said Dekker, echoing a sentiment put forth by the late physicist Richard Feynman, who once said, What I cannot create, I do not understand.

Just by engineering it, you are faced with certain problems that you didnt realize when you were studying the system top-down.

Cees Dekker, Delft University of Technology

In the future, synthetic cells may become factories that produce proteins and deliver drugs to treat human disease, but for now, they reside in the realm of curiosity-driven research with the goal of answering fundamental questions about biology. Dekkers dream is to create a synthetic cell from a minimal collection of functional components.2 However, en route to this goal, he needed to learn how to build biology, and how to become a biologist, from the bottom up.

What I appreciated about [Dekker] was that he was always going for the big aim, for the very juicy target, said Nicola De Franceschi, a molecular biologist at the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines and former postdoctoral researcher in Dekkers team.

At the end of the 1990s, a 40-year-old Dekker reflected on what he wanted to do with the next 30 or so years of his career. Up until then, he researched solid-state physics and nanotechnology; he worked on superconductors, explored how electrons traverse carbon nanotubes, and developed the first carbon nanotube transistor.3 Although he found the work rewarding, his interests were changing along with the zeitgeist of the turn of the century. There was a mood that solid-state physics is 20th century, and in the 21st century, the big open questions are really in biology, said Dekker. Fascinated by the immense complexity of cellular life, he rerouted his research agenda.

Cees Dekker, a biophysicist at Delft University of Technology, started his career working on quantum effects in semiconductors. Now, he works to build fully autonomous synthetic cells from minimal components.

Wilmar Dik

A curiosity about molecular motorsproteins that gobble up energy molecules to fuel their transport throughout the celldrove him to attend an ATP synthase conference. He eagerly sat through every talk. I didnt know anything about it, but I was totally fascinated by it, said Dekker, who hit the ground running. He added, I even started studying first year cell biology books.

To support this transformation, his lab needed a makeover: ultra-high vacuum millikelvin scanning tunneling microscopes made way for polymerase chain reaction machines and protein purification reagents. However, Dekker didnt leave everything from his past behind; he leveraged his background in nanotechnology to ease his entry into the biological sphere. His team has since developed nanotechnology-based single-molecule techniques to sequence single proteins, tease apart DNA-protein interactions, and probe how bacteria organize and distribute their chromosomes during replication.4-6

In the last decade, Dekker expanded his research portfolio further into the synthetic world to get closer to understanding natures blueprint. Im intrigued to understand the spatial and temporal organization of molecules that together form a system that has the attributes of life. Single DNA molecules are not alive; single proteins are not alive; but the combination of these hundreds of components makes an object that can grow, divide, sustain itself, evolve over time, and all that. I find that intriguing, said Dekker.

In 2016, biotechnologist Craig Venter and his colleagues at the eponymous J. Craig Venter Institute stripped down the genome of Mycoplasma mycoides to the bare minimum 473 genes required to sustain a living bacterium.7,8 After chemically synthesizing the genome, they transplanted it into an empty host. And then there was life! These synthetic microbes exhibited behaviors of living bacteria, including colony formation and continuous self-replication.

This top-down approach of genetic plug and play to filter out nonessential genes gives scientists new insights into the basic biology of life and whole-genome design. However, complex systems are incompletely defined or understood, as evidenced by the 149 genes of unknown function in Venters minimal synthetic genome. Flipping the script, some scientists are building synthetic cells from the bottom-up to ask fundamental questions in biology. Dekkers current quest is to discover the minimal components a cell needs to divide, a fundamental feature of cell life.

I even started studying first year cell biology books.

Cees Dekker, Delft University of Technology

He was, from the beginning on, someone who looked at this problem really from an engineering perspective, said Oskar Staufer, a biophysicist at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials and a peer in the synthetic biology field. Staufer noted that Dekkers techniques for building synthetic cells influenced his own research.

The first step in building a synthetic cell was to create a chassis to contain the synthetic machinery.9 Liposomes fit the bill since they are versatile, efficient, and easy to assemble. To build liposomes in the lab at scale, Dekker harkened back to his physics days where he created new equipment to test hypotheses. He and his team engineered a microfluidic system to encase an aqueous solution in a lipid membrane.10 A previous study showed the potential of such an approach using the alcohol oleic acid to shuttle lipids along as they developed into an outer bilayer.11 However, oleic acid takes more than 15 hours to separate from the newly formed liposome, a timeframe that could render potential cargo useless due to molecular and enzymatic degradation.

With speed in mind, Dekker and his team explored alternative lipid-carrying solutions and landed on the alcohol 1-octanol. Like a miniaturized bubble blowing machine, a solution consisting of 1-octanol and dissolved lipids envelopes an aqueous phase, and as this passes through a second aqueous phase, a droplet gets pinched off and dumped into a sea of vesicles. Within minutes, the encasing solution begins to separate; the dissolved lipids assemble into an outer membrane and the 1-octanol pools to the side of the vesicle before separating completely from the nascent liposome. They called the method octanol-assisted liposome assembly.

[Dekker] sees molecules as machines that perform functions, and that is not the typical perspective a biologist would have, said Stauffer. Because he perceives them as a machine, he can also take a screwdriver and start to tweak them and modify them to do certain functions.

To generate synthetic cells at scale, Dekker and his team created a novel microfluidic device. The octanol-assisted liposome assembly system produces a versatile chassis for shuttling molecular machineries.

Siddharth Deshpande, Cees Dekker

Dekker has been focusing on incorporating synthetic modules for cell division into his liposomes, borrowing inspiration from living cells along the way. Dekker is not alone in his efforts; others have found that a cocktail of five proteins successfully assembled a ring-shaped structure that emerges in the build up to bacterial cell division; however, these cell mimics have not achieved autonomous cell division.12

In what Staufer said was a major breakthrough for synthetic biology, Dekker and his team recently published their findings on a simple, straightforward module capable of inducing the complete separation of synthetic daughter cells, making it the first synthetic system capable of autonomous cell division.13,14 To achieve this milestone, they incorporated external DNA nanoparticles to coerce the liposomes into the classic dumbbell formation that occurs during late-stage natural cell division.15Alongside these synthetic membrane shapers, Dekker and his team added the bacterial protein dynamin A, which accumulates at points of high curvaturesuch as the neck of the dumbbell liposomeand triggers full separation of the membrane.

He was able to focus and also helped me to focus on the real objective, and that was very inspiring, said De Franceschi, who helped build these synthetic systems for cell division.

Researchers interest in building biological complexity from the ground up has burgeoned over the last two decades. This synthetic cell effort is something that no single group can do. Its really a joint effort. Its super multidisciplinary, said Dekker, who is a member of the European Synthetic Cell Initiative, which is coordinated by TU Delft.

Molecular puppeteers are developing minimal synthetic modules to mimic other important cell functions, including chromosomal configuration, transcription and translation, and DNA replication and segregation. The next phase is going to be the most challenging one, said Dekker. On their own, each system presents a unique set of considerations and challenges. However, scientists must also find a way to integrate the different modules to maintain the spatial and temporal fidelity that is required to build a prototype synthetic cell.13 Thats our dream, said Dekker, who hopes to adopt emerging artificial intelligence and directed evolution techniques to tackle these challenges.

Given Dekkers experience with the protein mechanics of cell division and the organization of DNA, Staufer noted, That will be very important when one aims to achieve synthetic cell division, and the division of any kind of a genetic polymermost likely DNAinto daughter cells. That combination of expertise is very rare in the field.

References

The rest is here:
Building Cells from the Bottom Up - The Scientist

Cell Biology

From Code to Creature – The Scientist

It began with little pieces of embryos scooting around in a dish. In 1998, these unassuming cells caught the attention of Michael Levin, then a postdoctoral researcher studying cell biology at Harvard University. He recalled simply recording a video before tucking the memory away. Nearly two decades later, Levin, now a developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University, experienced a sense of dj vu. He observed that as a student transplanted tissues from one embryo to another, some loose cells swam free in the dish.

Levin had a keen interest in the collective intelligence of cells, tissues, organs, and artificial constructs within regenerative medicine, and he wondered if he could explore the plasticity and harness the untapped capabilities of these swirling embryonic stem cells. At that point, I started thinking that this is probably an amazing biorobotics platform, recalled Levin. He rushed to describe this idea to Douglas Blackiston, a developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University who worked alongside Levin.

At the time, Blackiston was conducting plasticity research to restore vision in blind African clawed frog tadpoles, Xenopus laevis, a model organism used to understand development. Blackiston transplanted the eyes to unusual places, such as the back of the head or even the tail, to test the integration of transplanted sensory organs.1 The eye axons extended to either the gut or spinal cord. In a display of dynamic plasticity, transplanted eyes on the tail that extended an optic nerve into the spinal cord restored the tadpoles vision.2

Levin and Blackiston decided to explore this remarkable ability to adapt to changes in function and connectivity, a key feature for regenerative medicine applications. By leveraging natures proficiency in building and rebuilding, they wanted to understand the limits of cell and tissue plasticity outside of their natural contexts to perform new functions.

Its more like craftsmanship than it is science at times because youre doing very fine manipulations.

Douglas Blackiston, Tufts University

In a similar vein, Josh Bongard, an evolutionary roboticist at the University of Vermont and Levins longtime colleague, pondered how robots could evolve like animals. He wanted to apply biological evolution to a machine by tinkering with the brains and bodies of robots and explored this idea with Sam Kriegman, then a graduate student in Bongards group and now an assistant professor at Northwestern University. Kriegman used evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate biological evolution in a virtual creature before teaming up with engineers to construct a physical version.

Levins biology and Bongards computational work intersected for a program called Lifelong Learning Machines(L2M). With this project, the researchers aimed to understand how biological systems adapt to their environments and integrate these living algorithms into robotics. Together, the team dovetailed developmental biology using different biological tissues as the building blocks and AI programs to generate synthetic lifeforms as the blueprints for biological robots (biobots), also known as xenobots.

At the beginning of this project, the team planned to build lifelong learning machines from AI systems, which was a challenging enterprise. Kriegman used evolutionary algorithms to design and evolve synthetic lifeforms in simulation, but the major stumbling block lay in translating these designs to the physical world. During weekly virtual meetings between the biologists and roboticists, Bongard recalled explaining to the biologist group what was easy and hard for roboticists to do; the conventional materials used to construct robots werent working.

Josh Bongard, Michael Levin, Douglas Blackiston, and Sam Kriegman (left to right) teamed up to build synthetic organisms with an unlikely building material: frog stem cells.

Its really difficult to realize [this idea] in hardware; no ones figured out how to create a robot that crawls out of a 3D printer, explained Kriegman. We tried to build robots out of rubber, 3D printers, and electronics, but theres always this problem. Its very difficult.

As Kriegman presented a video of little blob-like robots running around in a virtual environment, he described this challenge to the team. Within the computer simulations, these robots could be manipulated like a video game; it was easy to simulate physics principles like friction or modulate the virtual environment. However, the roboticists didnt think that they could translate these theoretical designs and simulations into the real world with the existing tools.

Blackiston rose to the challenge. He conceptualized a virtual robot built out of a different material: cells. In developmental biology and stem cell biology, this isnt a super difficult trick because the technology exists, but no ones thought about doing this, said Blackiston.

Blackiston got to work in the laboratory using extra cells from his X. laevis project. Through delicate micromanipulations of stem cells in the microscope room, he crafted a replica of Kriegmans virtual creature. About a week after Kriegman shared his simulations, Blackiston revealed his creation, affectionately dubbed the Bongard-bot, in a Slack thread.

When Sam and I were looking at this image, we werent sure what we were looking at. It looked like Sams virtual robot that he had shown the week before, but it was clearly made of cells, said Bongard. Although it was a rough approximation, floating in freshwater at only a few millimeters wide, it matched the virtual design.

While this creation emerged as an unexpected tangent to the initial L2M goal, it quickly became clear that this approach could breathe life into their simulations. Levin and Bongard encouraged Blackiston and Kriegman to explore this whole new space, moving between running thousands of simulations and sculpting the best designs out of cells. From there on, it was off to the races, recalled Kriegman.

See also: https://www.the-scientist.com/how-groups-of-cells-cooperate-to-build-organs-and-organisms-67881

Since the initial biobot remained static, the team wanted to see if they could make the newer version move. Kriegman initiated the iterative design of synthetic living machines by using AI to create virtual creatures; these innocuous blobs shuffled along the floor of a virtual world before gradually developing proto-legs or -arms. Then he and Blackiston selected the most viable designs to construct out of frog cells.

Xenobots are AI-designed organisms (red) crafted from frog stem cells (green).

In his initial simulations3 for locomotion, Kriegman based the iterations on frog skin and heart cells given their propensities to aggregate and contract, respectively.3 With heart cells, they hoped to leverage motor movements from the heart muscle, like a piston, that would coordinate a form of locomotion.

Kriegman needed the computer to determine the optimal position and shape for these cellular motors in the xenobots. However, there was no guarantee that the evolved simulation would be feasible in the real world. With limited information, Kriegman sought the expertise of heart researchers to gain some insights into heart cell synchronization and to learn how unconventional shapes may influence cellular function. We know how these cells work in the heart shape, but what would happen with these cells in the context of xenobots? he wondered. Its difficult to predict ahead of time, so the AI or evolutionary algorithm must find designs that work regardless of how the motors are moving. Its making reliable machines with unreliable parts.

The team had to get creative during this process. Based on the AI, Doug would build it, and then they would modify the AI and build the next iteration, recalled Levin. Going back and forth, it was amazing because every week there was something new to look at.

Its a great reminder that when it comes to robotics and AI, humans tend to overthink things. Its better to let evolution, either biological or artificial, figure out how much complexity is needed for the task at hand.

Josh Bongard, University of Vermont

As Kriegman generated numerous iterations of xenobots, Blackiston used the 3D image as the working blueprint in his microscope room. Blackiston gathered his ingredients using different biological tissues harvested from blastula stage X. laevis embryos. Then, as if building a sandwich, he arranged the different cell layers one at a time into a cube of tissue.

When the tissue healed together, it formed a sphere. Then Blackiston sculpted the tissue using a microsurgical tool with a wire smaller than a human hair to achieve the desired shape. Each cell type differed by color, and he rotated between filters to maintain the correct orientation. Its more like craftsmanship than it is science at times because youre doing very fine manipulations, remarked Blackiston. The final product resembled a speck of pepper moving in a petri dish. These biodegradable xenobots lived for about a week, sustaining themselves on their own food source (a yolk of lipid and protein deposits) before they degraded and ceased functioning.

One of the designs featured heart muscle cells on the bottom and skin cells on top with two stumpy legs on one side. As a result, it leaned over on its chest and could walk by moving forward in a straight line. However, when flipped onto its back, the simulated design became immobile due to the alteration in shape and tissue distribution. To verify whether the computer-generated in silico matched what was created in the laboratory, Kriegman compared the trajectories of the physical xenobot and those of the virtual xenobot. To the teams surprise, the two trajectories almost perfectly overlapped with one another. It wasnt just for one trajectory; there were lots of pairs, recalled Bongard. It confirmed that what happened in simulation matched what happened in reality.

The team next wanted to see if they could make a xenobot swim. To do this, the researchers employed another type of motor: cilia.4 Instead of layering different tissues, Blackiston used whole explants from developing frog embryos.

These explants, known as animal caps, have been used to study cell differentiation and tissue formation.5 The team repurposed the animal cap to create living machines with new specific functions. Once the X. laevis explants balled up into a spherical mass, they gained motility from cilia, which propelled them through their aqueous environments.

While their movements were less predictable compared to their walking counterparts, these ciliated xenobots could navigate. The xenobots swam through open fields, mazes, and even narrow capillaries. In environments with debris or silicone-coated beads, xenobots collectively swarmed together to push the debris into piles.

Not only did the xenobots demonstrate self-locomotion, but they could also be modified to record an experience. The team tested the biobots ability to sense their environments by microinjecting mRNA with a photoconvertible reporter that caused them to fluoresce green. Xenobots freely explored their surroundings, but if any xenobot passed through an area exposed to blue light, the reporter underwent a permanent conformational change, causing the xenobot to glow red. Otherwise, xenobots glowed green to indicate that they did not detect the blue light.

Xenobots also exhibited inherent robustness and could automatically self-repair after injury from surgical forceps. Every single xenobot could close a wound, resolve the injury, and reform into a spherical shape within minutes. From a robotics perspective, cells are like a technology from a thousand years in the future that have just been plopped on our desks. They work when you stick them together. They survive; theyre self-powered; and they heal, remarked Kriegman.

See also:https://www.the-scientist.com/xenobot-living-robots-can-reproduce-69477

As they watched the xenobots scoot and shuffle across the dish and push debris into piles, the researchers envisioned adding another feature. If the debris was replaced with other materials such as stem cells or even microplastics, the ability to collect materials could open up new areas for xenobot applications. They just needed a new design.

The presence of cilia, marked in orange fluorescence, enabled xenobots to swim in their environments.

The initial spheroid shape wasnt the best for this task. When Kriegman returned to the computer drawing board, he was surprised by the simplicity of the suggested design: a C-shape. Its a great reminder that when it comes to robotics and AI, humans tend to overthink things. Its better to let evolution, either biological or artificial, figure out how much complexity is needed for the task at hand, said Bongard.

This C-shape, reminiscent of Pac-Man or a snowplow, led to an unexpected discovery. C-shaped xenobots spontaneously replicated in a manner dubbed as kinematic self-replication.6 When the team replaced debris with loose, white-colored stem cells, the xenobots immediately set to work collecting cells.

Over time, the piles of collected cells grew big enough to begin swimming themselves. These baby xenobots, although smaller than their makers, were created without evolution or genetic manipulation. Interestingly, this process occurred entirely within the dish. If there werent enough loose cells around, self-replication ceased; parent xenobots could only produce a round or two of self-replication before petering out.

The concept of kinematic self-replication was first proposed in the 1940s by a mathematician named John von Neumann.7 In this hypothetical model, a machine could assemble parts to create a duplicate of itself. However, true replication only occurs in nature, while machine replication is limited to generating computer viruses. [With xenobots], this is a new way that people havent thought about where biological systems, namely cell clusters, can replicate, said Kriegman. Maybe this will help people think differently about replication.

By leveraging existing techniques, the team built something that was not found in nature and reconfigured it to fulfill a new function. These xenobots have challenged conventional categories: Are they robots, living things, or machines? While the categorization of these synthetic living organisms may need to be redefined into a new box altogether, one thing remains certain: the team has only scratched the surface of biobots capabilities.

Its a green technology in every sense of the word. What is the probability that it will never have an application? To me, Im biased, but I think its close to zero. Its going to find a use somewhere, but who knows how many uses and how long it will take? said Bongard.

People thought this was a one-off froggy specific result, but this is a very profound thing. Whats the furthest from an embryonic frog? Well, that would be an adult human.

Michael Levin, Tufts University

Potential avenues for these biodegradable machines primarily revolve around environmental applications, from serving as biosensors to detect pollutants to gathering materials like microplastics or even sequestering and breaking down harmful chemicals.

People thought this was a one-off froggy-specific result, but this is a very profound thing, emphasized Levin. To demonstrate its translatability in a non-frog model, he wondered, Whats the furthest from an embryonic frog? Well, that would be an adult human.

He enlisted the help of Gizem Gumuskaya, a synthetic biologist with an architectural background in Levins group, to tackle this challenge of creating biological robots using human cells to create anthrobots.8 While Gumuskaya was not involved with the development of xenobots, she drew inspiration from their design. By using adult human tracheal cells, she found that adult cells still displayed morphologic plasticity.

Xenobots (C-shaped; beige) push loose stem cells (specks; white) into piles as they move through their environments.

The resulting anthrobots swam using cilia, but they unexpectedly also moved across a layer of damaged human neurons. To Gumuskayas surprise, the anthrobots aggregated and formed what she described as an ant bridge between the two damaged edges. While how they accomplished this remains unknown, the anthrobots aided in healing the neuronal tear, indicating that they may offer therapeutic potential.

There are several key differences between xenobots and anthrobots: species, cell source (embryonic or adult), and the anthrobots ability to self-assemble without manipulation. When considering applications, as a rule of thumb, xenobots are better suited to the environment. They exhibit higher durability, require less maintenance, and can coexist within the environment, said Gumuskaya.

Meanwhile, there is greater potential for the use of mammalian-derived biobots in biomedical applications. This could include localized drug delivery, deposition into the arteries to break up plaque buildup, or deploying anthrobots into tissue to act as biosensors. [Anthrobots] are poised as a personalized agent with the same DNA but new functionality, remarked Gumuskaya.

Gumuskaya hopes that this work in frogs and human cells inspires the scientific community to explore the new and unexpected functionalities of these bioconstructs. There are a lot of big challenges in this world, but were developing new kinds of technologies and tools for the next generation. I hope that these bots become one tool in that toolkit, remarked Bongard.

References

Read the original:
From Code to Creature - The Scientist

Family Medicine

Waco Family Medicine to open new headquarters next week, boosting patient care, doctor training – Waco Tribune-Herald

Years of work will come to fruition next week as Waco Family Medicine opens a $65 million flagship facility bringing together medical specialty clinics, community resources and primary care physicians under one roof.

The one-stop shop and headquarters at 1600 Providence Drive will improve care opportunities for patients and provide family practice doctors in residency with access to greater professional development. It represents a decadelong passion project for Dr. Mike Hardin, chief clinical officer of Waco Family Medicine.

WATCH NOW: Waco Family Medicine's $65 million flagship facility on Providence Drive

So many of our patients face transportation insecurity and other challenges to their health like being food-insecure or not living in a neighborhood where they can just go outside to exercise, Hardin said. Now we wont have to send them across town to see certain specialists, and we have community partners on the first floor to offer them housing assistance, nutrition assistance or to help them pay rent and so forth. Having all this in one place will help close gaps in their care and allow them opportunities to improve their lives.

Waco Family Medicine is a Federally Qualified Health Center offering comprehensive health care services. It has more than a dozen locations that served 60,000 patients last year, primarily uninsured or underinsured patients, offering an income-based sliding fee scale.

Fundraising remains underway to pay for the new facility, with less than $13 million left to raise for the $65 million project.

WATCH NOW: Dr. Mike Hardin talks about Waco Family Medicine's new 143,000-square-foot facility, which doubles the clinical space at its Providence Drive campus. (February 2024)

The specialty clinics to be housed in the new headquarters will also give Waco Family Medicine medical residents the chance to rotate with specialists and apply what they learn in the full spectrum of family practice medicine, residency program director Dr. Burritt Hess said.

The organizations residency program already is highly rated and highly competitive, with 700 applicants for 12 positions in a recent group of residents, associate program director Dr. Ryan Laschober said.

Gloria Veracruz Guerra has been a patient at Waco Family Medicine for 42 years. She also has worked there in a variety of roles starting in nursing in 1982, transitioning through billing into patient administration and retiring more than six years ago. She has also been a member of the medical board for the practice the past five years.

Every time I walk into Waco Family Medicine, I observe how other patients are treated, Veracruz Guerra said. I look to see whether they feel heard and whether their needs are addressed.

From the first greeting when patients enter, until they leave, patients receive respect and find their needs addressed and their lives improved, she said.

Now we wont have to send them on another bus ride to another clinic in a different part of the city for specialty care, Veracruz Guerra said. Theyll be able to go to another floor or down the hall to see who they need to see.

The specialty clinics will include minor surgical care; skin care; care for muscles, bones and connective tissues; and care for long-term inflammatory ailments, officials said.

Hess said the practice may reach out to specialists who treat diabetes and glandular conditions as well as those who treat kidney diseases.

Only a portion of health can be addressed in the patient exam room. The rest is social and environmental, Laschober said.

Twenty percent of health is inside the exam room. Eighty percent is community resource, Laschober said. This new facility will provide patients access to care for the whole person. We will have medical, dental and behavioral health here along with addiction medicine.

The facility will also have indoor and outdoor exercise rooms for patients.

For some people, a physician can tell them to exercise more and they know what to do, but not everyone was a high school or college athlete and remembers how to put together an exercise training plan, Laschober said.

We will now give our patients the tools to succeed, he said. We have a fantastic wellness and fitness center, where patients will meet with a fitness specialist who will help them tailor an exercise program specific to their needs. This is not for big biceps. Its for wherever they are on their health journey.

Waco Family Medicine officials, area politicians and celebrities Chip and Joanna Gaines ceremonially broke ground Thursday on a $61 million central facility for the medical services nonprofit that will replace the current one at its existing location in the 1600 block of Colcord Avenue. (October 2022)

There will also be community-partner organizations on-site to help patients address housing challenges, and a variety of programs and resources, including Greater Waco Legal Services and even nutrition, Laschober said.

We have Shepherds Heart who will help with food distribution, but now well also have a culinary test kitchen where local partners will help patients learn to prepare nourishing meals they will eat and enjoy consistent with their culture, he said.

The range of services is aimed at addressing the social drivers of health, Hess said.

Patients will be able to meet with clinicians and community partners, lowering barriers to health and allowing them to flourish in their lives with families and employment as well, Hess said.

The easier access to specialists will also present opportunities for Waco Family Medicines residents training to specialize in family medicine, Hess said.

We have specialists who have graciously volunteered their time to serve patients who are generally uninsured and they will also oversee teams of residents, Hess said.

The specialists and the residents will collaboratively review their patients histories and develop a treatment plan together.

We are thrilled to offer the residents a state-of-the-art medical facility for training that will move training forward in huge ways beyond what the old building allowed, Hess said. And there will be a ripple effect, as these residents complete the program and go out to practice themselves. They will offer top notch care, second to none.

Friday will be the last day providers see patients in the current building next door to the new one, Hardin said. The staff will move their final items and equipment into the new building over the weekend and begin seeing patients there Monday.

Waco Family Medicine offers care from the beginning of life to the end of life, Veracruz Guerra said.

People who may be looking for a new physician should come see us and give us a chance, she said.

Waco Family Medicine plans to have a grand opening after the old building has been demolished and the campus has been put into its final form, likely in the fall, spokesperson Nick Alvarado said.

Even if people do not have a medical need, they should still come get a tour during the grand opening and see what it offers, Veracruz Guerra said.

Fundraising efforts for the new headquarters went public in December 2021, and a groundbreaking ceremony in October 2022 marked the start of construction on the 143,000-square-foot facility, with Dallas-based Beck Group as the main contractor.

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

Here is the original post:

Waco Family Medicine to open new headquarters next week, boosting patient care, doctor training - Waco Tribune-Herald

Family Medicine

Cumberland Healthcare announces new family medicine physician – Ashland Daily Press

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

Read this article:

Cumberland Healthcare announces new family medicine physician - Ashland Daily Press

Family Medicine

Duke School of Medicine Hosts Navy Medicine Delegation for Collaborative Research Tour – Duke University School of Medicine

Duke University School of Medicine students and faculty met with a delegation of Navy Medicine senior leaders on June 6.

The teamDeputy Surgeon General Rear Admiral (RADM) Rick Freedman, along with Master Chief Petty Officer Hansen LaFoucade, Lieutenant Command Kathleen Dale, Lieutenant Aaron Abreu, and Chief Petty Officer Stephen Todrzak toured School of Medicine facilities and met with several Duke faculty and students to explore collaborative research and scholarship opportunities available within military health care.

Their tour included stops at the School of Nursing, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Trent Semans Center for Health Education, Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, Physician Assistant Program, Duke Surgery, and the Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center.

A key focus of the visit was to promote the Navys scholarship programs for health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, dentists, and physician assistants. Scholarships from the Navy cover tuition and offer stipends, which can provide a debt-free path to employment in Navy Medicine after graduation.

Navy Medicine has more than 44,000 highly trained military and civilian health care professionals who provide enduring expeditionary medical support to the warfighter on, below, and above sea, and ashore.

Go here to see the original:

Duke School of Medicine Hosts Navy Medicine Delegation for Collaborative Research Tour - Duke University School of Medicine

Family Medicine

Bryan family medicine office welcomes nurse practitioner – West Bend News

Tara Garza, FNP, MSN, BSN, has joined Parkview Physicians Group (PPG) Family Medicine in Bryan and is welcoming patients at the office, 442 W. High St., second floor.

Tara is an experienced nurse practitioner, and we are very glad shes chosen to serve the Williams County community as part of the Parkview family of providers, noted Sally Taylor, vice president of operations, PPG, Ohio.

Garza returns to Parkview after years serving patients at Community Memorial Hospital. As a registered nurse, she cared for the complex needs of patients in the emergency room, the medical/surgical unit, the intensive care unit (ICU) and the obstetrics (OB) department. As a family nurse practitioner, she has provided comprehensive primary care for patients from newborn to older adult and has served as a preceptor for nurses and nurse practitioners in training.

Garza began her nursing career as a telemetry nurse at Parkview Randallia Hospital, working with patients who had past or ongoing cardiac conditions.

Garza received her masters degree in nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) from Graceland University in Independence, Missouri. She earned her bachelors degree in nursing from Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, after having received an associate degree from Northwest State Community College (NSCC) in Archbold, Ohio. She has been recognized among NSCCs Distinguished Alumni.

Board certified by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Garza is a member of the AMDA The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term-Care Medicine as well as the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

Drawn to a medical career in childhood, Garza found satisfaction in nursing and has challenged herself to perform at a higher level for the benefit of her patients.

I loved bedside nursing, but I felt I had the skills to help community members even more as a nurse practitioner, so I obtained further education, she said. Being a family medicine nurse practitioner enables me to build a trusting medical relationship with people from birth until their final days. I like that Im able to take the time to get to know my patients not just their medical conditions, but who they are and what they enjoy so I can individualize their plan of care and find what will work best for them. I have experience with the elderly and enjoy the stories my older patients share; helping them live their best lives is very important.

Outside of work, Garza enjoys reading and family time with her spouse, four children and three grandchildren. She finds travel therapeutic, especially the sun and ocean breezes of cruising.

A believer in community support through volunteerism, in recent years, she has served on the Four County Career Center Health Occupations Advisory Board, as a board member of Community Memorial Hospital Rural Health Clinic and as a Gateway Woods mentor to a teen mother.

Garza is welcoming patients of all ages. To schedule an appointment, call 419-636-4517.

Garzas office hours are 8:00 a.m.4:00 p.m. Monday, 8:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, 8:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, 8:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. Friday.

Lab and imaging services are also available at the PPG Family Medicine office. Lab hours are 7:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m. MonFri. Imaging is open 8:00 a.m.5:00 p.m. MonFri.

Like Loading...

Read more from the original source:

Bryan family medicine office welcomes nurse practitioner - West Bend News

Family Medicine

CalOptima commits over $500M to increase the rates paid to medical providers – New Santa Ana

ORANGE, Calif. (June 17, 2024) The CalOptima Health Board of Directors has approved an investment of $526.2 million to increase rates paid to hospitals, physicians, community clinics, behavioral health providers and ancillary services providers in Orange County. It is the largest provider rate increase of its kind in CalOptima Healths nearly 30-year history. This investment is intended to support timely access to critical health care services for members and promote longer-term financial stability of the managed care network over a 30-month period from July 2024 to December 2026.

This unprecedented provider rate increase comes at a much-needed time to counteract some of the financial uncertainty due to the California state budget deficit and its likely impact on health programs, including Medi-Cal. The complex nature of the ongoing budget negotiations underscores why CalOptima Healths action to deliver a separate provider rate increase is so significant. Based on prior fiscal prudence and in accordance with its founding ordinance, CalOptima Health is using unallocated reserve funds to expand access and augment provider reimbursement.

CalOptima Health provides health insurance benefits to nearly one in three Orange County residents. It serves more than 928,000 low-income children, adults, seniors and people with disabilities through a managed care delivery model, including health network partners, hospitals, physician groups, community health centers, skilled nursing facilities, behavioral health providers and other ancillary service providers. Together, these organizations are the health care safety net for Orange County.

Historically, Medi-Cal reimbursement has been a barrier to access for patients and their families, said Michael Hunn, CEO of CalOptima Health. We ask a lot of our hospitals, doctors and others who provide life-saving care to our members. During the public health emergency, CalOptima Health supported providers with temporary, short-term supplemental payments. These new rate increases will help ensure member access, provider financial stability, network access and medical care for CalOptima Health members throughout Orange County over the next two and a half years.

A county organized health system, CalOptima Health provides quality health care coverage for low-income children, adults, seniors and people with disabilities in Orange County, California. CalOptima Healths mission is to serve member health with excellence and dignity, respecting the value and needs of each person. CalOptima Health serves more than 928,000 members with a network of 10,900 primary care doctors and specialists and 39 acute and rehab hospitals.

Reactions from health care leaders across Orange County

These rate increases by CalOptima Health put members health care needs first and foremost. All of the hospitals, community clinics, physicians and others who care for CalOptima Health members appreciate the recognition and validation of our important role in supporting the health care safety net in Orange County. We thank CalOptima Health for its historic investment. Robert Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and Chair of the Orange County Area for the Hospital Association of Southern California

On behalf of the physician community, the Orange County Medical Association applauds this important action by CalOptima Health in making a substantial investment in the health care delivery system in Orange County. Not only does this help support the providers, but more importantly, it will help to increase access to care in the network that serves one out of every three residents in our community. Jim Peterson, Executive Director, Orange County Medical Association

This landmark decision underscores CalOptima Healths unwavering commitment to enhancing the quality of care for the communities we serve. The increased funding will significantly bolster the ability of the Behavioral Health and Applied Behavior Analysis provider community to attract and retain behavior therapists, and ultimately provide the highest standard of care to our patients. The increase means more comprehensive and accessible mental health services and behavioral interventions. It will allow us to expand our reach to underserved populations, reduce wait times, and deliver individualized, evidence-based care that addresses the unique needs of each patient. We are excited about the opportunities this rate increase brings. Junie Lazo-Pearson, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Chief Clinical Officer, Advanced Behavioral Health

Orange County pediatricians appreciate that CalOptima Healths rate increase is designed to ensure that physicians are adequately reimbursed for the excellent care they deliver. Also, the increase will serve to improve health care disparities for the population served, resulting in better health outcomes and decreased overall costs. We applaud CalOptima Health for understanding and recognizing the importance of the patient-centered medical home as well as assuring continuity of care for our patients. Reshmi Basu, M.D., FAAP, President, American Academy of PediatriciansOrange County Chapter

As a family physician working at a training program within a Federally Qualified Health Center, our goal is to provide high-quality clinical care to our community while training future physicians to dedicate their careers to caring for the underserved. Ultimately, we aim to train physicians who expand their services to meet the needs of the community they serve, including services such as medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder, treatment of Hepatitis C, and complex prenatal care. Provider rate increases represent an opportunity for us to be appropriately compensated for the significant impact broadly trained primary care physicians have on the health care system, and for us to continue to focus our efforts on providing our patients timely access to the highest standards of needs-focused care. Matteo Leveroni, M.D., Medical Director of Family Medicine, UCI Family Health CenterSanta Ana

Family Choice Health Services fully supports the provider rate increases being implemented by CalOptima Health, starting July 1, 2024. Family Choice expects that the added upfront monthly capitation provided will be sufficient to pay for the higher provider rates being implemented. With the proper balance in increased funding between physicians, hospitals, health networks, FQHCs and other health care providers, quality patient care and access throughout Orange County will be improved and ensured. Toan Tran, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Family Choice Health Services

Like Loading...

See the original post:

CalOptima commits over $500M to increase the rates paid to medical providers - New Santa Ana

Family Medicine

Discussing Family Health this Father’s Day – Cleveland Clinic Newsroom

CLICK HERE to download soundbites, b-roll, script and web article.

For download password, contact ccnewsservice@ccf.org.

CLEVELAND - Fathers Day is this Sunday, making it the perfect time to check in with your dad about his health and encourage him to see the doctor if hasnt got in a while.

I see people that come into my office and I ask them, Hey, why are you here, Joe? and theyll saymy familys been bugging me about coming in. So, bug them to come in, it works, said John Hanicak, MD, family medicine physician for Cleveland Clinic. And we see the downstream effects of that. So, they do show up and you get things taken care of, catch things early.

Dr. Hanicak said there are all kinds of reasons someone may delay seeing the doctor, like maybe theyve just been really busy, or they didnt think the pain or discomfort theyre experiencing was a big deal.

But, the sooner a person comes in, the better.Then their doctor can help treat the issue before it turns into something serious.

Its also important not to delay screenings or tests.

For example, prostate cancer exams are typically recommended around 50.

They may be needed sooner if theres family history.

Speaking of family history, Dr. Hanicak said parents need to make sure theyre talking to their children about genetic concerns, too.

If you haven't seen your doctor for a long time, don't be afraid to check in with us, he added. We're not going to yell at you because your cholesterol is high. Our job is to help you to be the best person that you can be. But, the first step is coming in for that appointment to catch up and see how things are going.

Dr. Hanicak said talking to men about their mental health is just as important.

He knows it can be a sensitive topic for some, but its worth addressing.

Original post:

Discussing Family Health this Father's Day - Cleveland Clinic Newsroom

Family Medicine

Virginia’s state budget will fund OB-GYN medical residencies amid obstetrics closures – News From The States

Julia Resil is leaving Virginia.

At this stage in her career, the chapter of being a medical resident is naturally coming to a close and she will move on to become an attending physician in Rhode Island. Resil has spent the past three years at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, in Southwest Virginia. Shes excited that shell be closer to her family in Boston and nearer to metropolitan areas, though practicing family medicine in a rural area was attractive to her as a medical resident.

Family medicine practice can include obstetrics the delivery of babies and the exodus of doctors like Resil comes at a time where several rural hospitals in Virginia have suspended their obstetrics programs. Within the past year, Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital, Sovah Health in Martinsville and LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery in Blacksburg have stopped offering obstetrics.

President of Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital Dr. Brian Zwoyer said that there was a 33% decrease in births there over the past five years. In a recent email, he attributed this to changing demographics, aging populations and a national declining birth rate.

With hospitals already less accessible in rural areas of the state than urban areas, Resil noted that patients end up traveling further for check-up appointments or to give birth.

And as you get closer to your due date, you have more appointments, Resil said.

About 15% of people in Virginia dont have a birthing hospital within a 30-minute drive, according to a report from the March of Dimes.

Danville-based doula Roshay Richardson works with clients around Virginias South Side and occasionally some from North Carolina. She said that shes seen patients travel to Danville from elsewhere to give birth and wonders how much of a strain that could put on labor and delivery doctors with an uptick in clients. Richardson works with the Virginia Rural Health Association, which advocates to lawmakers about rural healthcare needs.

While doulas arent obstetricians, they provide companionship and patient advocacy to their clients. A U.S. Department of Health study noted doulas role in positive health outcomes and theyve been particularly helpful for Black parents.

Likewise, Resil described a patient traveling about three hours because they wanted to see a doctor of color. Resil is among a diverse cohort of medical residents in a predominantly white part of the state.

They were a little bit scared because they had providers that were white in the past and they felt uncomfortable because they felt like they werent being heard, Resil said of the patient.

As a woman of color with family from Haiti, Resil knows this feeling. She shared that anecdotally, she and members of her family have felt this way when theyve gone to the doctor.

Then seeing that in some of my patients. Theyve been hopping around from doctor to doctor saying something is wrong but I cant figure it out; but no one is listening to me, Resil said. And then we find out, oh yeah, there is. Lets make sure we get you to the high-risk OB-GYN.

OB-GYN care can be deadly at times, with pregnancy-related medical emergencies that can arise suddenly. Such was the case for Wendy Welchs friend.

Welch, director of the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium, described how a friend developed eclampsia. The pregnancy-related blood pressure disorder is life threatening and her friend had to be flown to a different hospital across the state line and into an urban area. This saved her life, but also resulted in much higher medical bills.

She explained that her friend was unconscious when loaded onto a flight and then woke up about $30,000 in debt.

Money is both an issue and a solution, Welch explained. Her nonprofit organization works to help cover costs of bringing medical residents into Virginia.

Welch said that lower population density and declining birth rates has meant theres not enough people for the hospital system to consider (obstetrics) profitable.

But funding positions could help. Most OB-GYN residencies are in other areas of the state, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Though family medicine residents can work with pregnant clients, OB-GYN residents are more specialized in obstetrics and gynecology.

(Rural areas) get screwed, Welch said. To catch a unicorn to catch someone whos that valuable and knows theyre that valuable, you need a whole lot of stuff to attract them now. If theyre a kayaker or their mom is in Southwest Virginia, youve got them, but if not, how are you going to get them here?

Lawmakers have secured funding in the state budget that they hope can bolster medical residencies. Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery and Del. Jason Ballard, R-Giles pressed for one million over the next two years to fund 10 obstetric-gynecological residents. Two positions are specifically earmarked for Johnston Memorial, where Resil has worked in family medicine.

The matter is also personal to Obenshain, whose wife had to travel to give birth to their child recently when the LewisGale hospital near them stopped labor and delivery services.

He felt lucky that there is a cluster of hospitals in his portion of Southwest Virginia, but he noted how other parts of Southwest Virginia and South Side have less options.

Its a much bigger issue when a hospital doesnt provide these services anymore, Obenshain said.

Virginia legislators in both parties worked on a variety of bills this year to improve maternal health outcomes. Some proposals, like a requirement for health insurance coverage of doulas, were signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Meanwhile, he vetoed a proposal to include unconscious bias and cultural competency training when renewing medical licenses. Black people are more likely to experience negative maternal health outcomes, in part, due to providers racial bias, according to a study. Black women are also more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

Women whose skin is darker than my wifes skin have significantly worse outcomes, Sen. Chris Head, R-Botetourt, said during a floor speech while defending the bill in the Senate. Something needs to be examined and done about that.

Head had carried the bill with three Democratic lawmakers who are also Black women: Sens. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg; Mamie Locke, D-Hampton; and Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William.

Though he ultimately vetoed the bill, Youngkin had first sought amendments that advocates for the bill worried made the training just a checked box.

Youngkin signaled interest in working on more maternal health legislation so the bill could come up again next year.

In the meantime, new cohorts of medical residents will cycle through Virginia and state agencies are set to use the new budget funding to recruit some with OB-GYN specialties.

While Resil has been able to bring her perspective as a practitioner of color to rural Virginia, she has lessons learned from the more hands-on experience that she will take with her when she leaves.

I have made countless house calls to people, and I know thats something I would probably not do in Boston, back home, she said. Being able to see how people are living, you can get a better idea of a family.

She said she plans to be more inquisitive with her patients going forward as a result.

Originally posted here:

Virginia's state budget will fund OB-GYN medical residencies amid obstetrics closures - News From The States

Family Medicine

Bucking the national trend: More Dal med grads opting for careers in family medicine – Dal News

This year, students graduating from Dalhousie Medical School are opting for careers in family medicine in impressive numbers.

Half of the graduating class will begin their residency training in family medicine this summer, marking a significant increase since 2018 when only 25 per cent of the class chose to enter a career path in family medicine.

Dalhousies Family Medicine program has also seen success, once again filling all available residency positions a remarkable feat, especially considering the expansion of its residency seats from 70 in 2022 to 91 in 2024.

While many programs nationwide face challenges in filling positions, this accomplishment is not merely fortuitous but rather the result of systematic changes implemented five years ago.

By intentionally integrating family physicians as educators and role models in the undergraduate curriculum we aimed to shift perceptions, says Dr. Kath Stringer, head of Family Medicine.

In 2018, concern arose when the Faculty of Medicine graduating class witnessed only a 25 per cent match rate to family medicine. Recognizing the pivotal role of family medicine in health care, the Faculty of Medicine identified the need for deliberate and sustained efforts to elevate it as a career choice.

The Family Medicine Project Charter was launched in response later that year, led by Dr. Jennifer Hall, family physician and then associate dean of Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick. The goal: to achieve a 50 per cent match rate by 2023.

Under the guidance of the charter, initiatives were developed to boost exposure to family medicine across the Dalhousie medicine curriculum. Among them, the longitudinal family medicine clinical exposure experience was introduced for first-year medical students; a two-week rural rotation based largely in family medicine was created; enhanced Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) opportunities were offered; and career nights were organized for medical students to explore career options within family medicine.

Efforts were also made to acknowledge and reward the contributions of family medicine residents and faculty. Continuous feedback from students and tracking career choice data has informed subsequent strategies.

The results of the Charters efforts were promising. One year after its implementation in 2018, the match rate had climbed to 41 per cent.

In 2023, the Faculty of Medicine formed a Family Medicine Specialty Committee to further advance this work.

The Family Medicine Specialty Committee led by Dr. Stringer and comprised of various leaders across the Faculty of Medicine, continues to identify and find solutions to the multifactorial barriers students face in choosing family medicine as a desired career.

The Committees work is integral to the Faculty of Medicines strategic plan, Realizing Our Ambition, which affirms the universitys commitment to advancing family medicine education and recognizing family medicine as a specialty of choice.

These efforts are yielding significant results as this years matching numbers illustrate.

The choice to pursue family medicine reflects our learners dedication to the field and embodies their profound understanding of the pivotal role family medicine plays in health care, says Dr. David Anderson, dean of the Faculty of Medicine. I congratulate each of them on making this very important decision and want to express sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff and faculty who helped achieve this impressive accomplishment.

Original post:

Bucking the national trend: More Dal med grads opting for careers in family medicine - Dal News