On February 6 at UW-Eau Claire, Dr. Rose-Marie Avin was presented with the university's 2019 MLK Social Justice Award. This award recognizes a campus community member who has demonstrated an exceptional ability to advocate for underserved and underrepresented groups and who leads, organizes and engages the community in the difficult work of equity, diversity and inclusion through their voice, vision and actions.
Avin, professor of economics and director of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, has focused her career efforts on amplifying the voices of women, particularly those living in poverty in the developing world.
For the fifth year, Mayo Clinic Health System will offer its Hometown Health Grant program to help improve the health of communities in northwest Wisconsin. The grant application is open to nonprofit organizations in Barron, Buffalo, Dunn, Chippewa, Eau Claire, Pierce, St. Croix and Trempealeau counties. Last year, $205,000 was issued in grants to 14 nonprofit organizations.
The Hometown Health Grant program supports innovative efforts to improve mental health, prevent obesity, reduce chronic disease, and address substance use and alcohol misuse. Recipients are eligible to receive up to a maximum of $25,000. Grant funding can be used to launch new projects or improve existing projects.
Prevea Health has announced the addition of Dr. James Herron, an internal medicine physician at the Prevea Chippewa Falls Health Center. Dr. Herron specializes in routine care for adults, as well as preventive medicine and medication management. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Herron is one of three internal medicine providers at Prevea Health in the Chippewa Valley region.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded a $2.5 million grant to Chippewa Valley Technical College as the lead institution on an open textbook pilot project in which all 16 Wisconsin technical colleges will take part. CVTC partnered with Gateway, Northeast and Madison Area technical colleges in developing the proposal, with all playing major roles.
Over the four-year grant period, faculty from the four partnering technical colleges will create and review open educational resources, including open textbooks, for WTCS nursing programs across the state. The grant will help alleviate rising textbook costs, which can be a barrier to student success. The materials developed will eliminate the need for students to purchase textbooks for certain courses.
An estimated 6,100 students will benefit from reduced textbook costs in hundreds of nursing course sections statewide, with an average cost savings of almost $700 per student. On average, WTCS students spend over $1,300 on textbooks throughout a two-year associate degree program.
HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital has recently been awarded three-year accreditation renewals by the American College of Radiology (ACR), for the hospital’s digital mammography program and tomosynthesis mammography program. Mammography is a specific type of imaging test that uses a low-dose X-ray system to examine breasts. A mammography exam, called a mammogram, is used to aid in the early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases in women.
The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Parameters and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report that can be used for continuous practice improvement.