May 6, 2004

SIU Med School Faculty and Staff Receive Fellowship to Address Local Health Care Needs

Health care providers of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield and Quincy have been selected to participate in the Quentin N. Burdick Rural Health Interdisciplinary Fellowship Program to study and address local health care needs.

The Quentin N. Burdick Rural Health Interdisciplinary Program is a federal grant used to establish postdoctoral/postgraduate interdisciplinary training fellowships in dentistry, pharmacy, nutrition, nursing, social work and medicine. With an interdisciplinary approach, providers from different professions can coordinate to share mutual goals, resources and responsibilities for patient care. The fellows will be part of an on-going health care team and can serve as teachers and mentors to other health professionals locally.

The SIU fellowship participants are Dr. Anna Mies-Richie, assistant professor; Cindi Ledbetter, assistant professor; Helen Moose, instructor; and Linda Werner, social worker, all from the SIU's Center for Family Medicine in Springfield; and Tracey Smith, nurse educator from the School's education and curriculum office. Their project will develop wellness activities for children and adults in the Girard area. This is the second Burdick fellowship received by SIU faculty for the community. The first project developed a prenatal care program for local patients.

The SIU health professionals participating in the fellowship for Quincy are Shirley Longlett, assistant professor; Rebecca Hanna, instructor; and Rhonda Chandler Kewney, instructor, all from the SIU Family Practice Center in Quincy. Their project will focus on decreasing the number of patients who do not show up for their scheduled care.

The project grant has been awarded to the Illinois Health Education Consortium that operates the Western Illinois Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) based in Quincy. Other sponsoring groups are the Center for Rural Health Professions at the University of Illinois at Rockford; Illinois Department of Public Health Center for Rural Health; and SIU School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine.

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