ASPECTS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE SUMMER FALL 2022 | 45-2

This issue of Aspects examines the explosive growth in the use of telehealth in medicine. What was once an option that could save patients’ time and providers’ money became a necessity in spring 2020, as a global pandemic erased normal access routes to clinical care. Since 1995, SIU Medicine had been gradually introducing virtual services and innovations to its health care programs. Today it is a vital resource that allows us to close a number of the gaps in care across Illinois.

Improved access

Telehealth brings health care services to patients at distant sites. Not only does it improve access for patients, but it also allows physicians and health facilities to expand their reach beyond their own offices. Given the provider shortages throughout the world—in both rural and urban areas—telehealth has a unique capacity to increase service to millions of new patients.

Cost efficiencies

Reducing or containing the cost of health care is one of the most important reasons for funding and adopting telehealth technologies. Telehealth has been shown to reduce cost and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times, and fewer or shorter hospital stays.

Improved quality

Studies have consistently shown that the quality of health care services delivered via telehealth is as good as what’s given in traditional in-person consultations. In some specialties, particularly in mental health and ICU care, telehealth delivers a superior product, with better outcomes and higher patient satisfaction.

Patient demand

Consumers want telehealth. Over the past 15 years, studies have documented patient satisfaction and support for telemedicine services. It has a positive impact on the patient, their immediate family and the environment. Using telehealth technologies reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient, as well as providing care options that might not be available otherwise

Know the audience

Now 2.5 years after this exponential growth, telehealth demand has returned to a manageable level. It is offered where appropriate, and needs-based, to best accommodate the provider, the patient and the specialty. The virtual option is especially important when the patient has mobility issues or lives in a rural area distant from health care services.

For instance, prior to the pandemic the Division of Endocrinology had an established telemedicine practice for patients with diabetes in cooperation with rural hospitals in the School of Medicine’s traditional telehealth network. It helped to prepare the division for personal telehealth appointments on platforms such as WebEx in the early days of the COVID shift.

Twenty percent of the division’s weekly clinics are now conducted as telehealth sessions. Some are traditional sessions in partnership with rural hospitals, and others are in-home telehealth appointments.

Despite the progress, concerns exist that areas of the state and groups of people are being left behind in the wake of the telehealth revolution. There are small towns where bandwidth access is limited or inconsistent. There are elderly citizens less technically proficient and neighborhoods where the residents don’t trust in the medical system in general.

A trio of new investments should aid SIU Telehealth’s efforts to bridge these gaps.

• In November 2021, the Federal Communications Commission awarded SIU Medicine $967,000 for funding related to COVID-19 telehealth equipment expenses.
• U.S. Senator Dick Durbin visited SIU School of Medicine’s Springfield campus in May to announce new federal funding that included $1.05 million for telehealth facilities and equipment upgrades. The school will use this investment to establish a more user-friendly telehealth platform, create studio space for telehealth services, expand digital health literacy programs for patients, and provide ongoing training and informational programs for rural health providers in Illinois’ counties.
• A grant from the Office of the Illinois Lieutenant Governor will support a pilot project to create some broadband hubs in targeted downstate communities.

SIU Chief Medical Information Officer Mike Dynda, MD, considers the creation of the rural hub ‘hot spots’ a concept well worth testing. “The technology needs to accommodate various platforms to make it easy for interactions between patient and provider, but it can work,” he says.

The value of telemedicine for specific appointment-types is also apparent, says Dynda, a family medicine physician. “From a primary care perspective, simple follow-ups for things like diabetes, weight loss, oncology and chemotherapy, chronic pain assessment, and medication checks can be done just as effectively over telehealth.”

Infectious Diseases’ Sundareshan believes another key element is having well-trained, empathetic colleagues within the network. The ultimate goal is to provide clear patient dialogue through the power of teamwork.

In 2018, the ID physician collaborated with Wiley Jenkins, PhD, in the Department of Population Science and Policy, on a grant to explore PREP care in rural areas of far southern Illinois for patients at risk for HIV. The study group worked with syringe exchange programs service partners. Sundareshan says, “Telemedicine was still kind of in its infancy. We did everything using a laptop and tablet in a conference room with one of our harm reduction partners. Discretion and professionalism are always important in health care, especially among a population where there’s so much local stigma and everyone knows everyone.”

The telehealth approach proved ideal, giving the team a way to communicate and put the patient at ease. “We thought how neat it would be if they could just do it from their house, and not even have to visit the harm reduction partner’s office,” she says. “And now that’s what we’re doing every day. It’s progress.”

What do you see as advantages to a telehealth patient visit?

In a word, access. It’s a real convenience factor for the patient. This is the third institution where I’ve used telemedicine. I’ve served in rural areas where people would have to get in their cars and drive several hours to see me. I’ve done it in urban areas where people don’t have reliable transportation. They would have to take three buses and a half-day off work to come across town to see me. I’ve done telemedicine in schools so kids don’t have to miss as much school and parents don’t have to miss part of their workday to pick up their child and drive them to the doctor’s office.

Another advantage is that it has greatly reduced the number of no-shows that we used to get with in-person visits. I’ve had people go out to their cars on a break from work and connect with me on their smartphones for a telemedicine appointment, so they don’t miss any of their work or paycheck. I’ve had professionals log into the telemedicine platform from their office computers to connect for their appointment. While all of these venues improve access and convenience for the patient, they also help to overcome stigma. Friends, co-workers, and even family members don’t know they’re seeing a psychiatrist and no one sees them walk into the psychiatry clinic.

From the physician standpoint, it increases capacity. Time previously spent commuting to a satellite location is now spent seeing patients. Me or one of my team who had been driving two hours round-trip to Jacksonville or Decatur are now seeing four to six more people a day. Or we’re doing research, or teaching, or providing service – something more constructive for the medical school and the community.

Another advantage: for patients with impaired mental functioning – dementia, a child with severe autism or intellectual disability – being able to see them in their home environment helps you get a better understanding of how they are actually functioning. If they have to be brought into the clinic it involves travel, checking in, waiting, getting vitals, a lot of extra commotion that can make them uncomfortable. In clinic I’d have to interpret what the parent or caregiver is saying and how that affects the patient. Observing them in their home setting, I can often see the family dynamic unfold on the screen in real-time and see ways in which the patient is functioning well as well as what challenges they are facing.

Are there any notable disadvantages?

The physician controls the camera in virtual telemedicine visits using traditional telemedicine platforms, so they can see nearly everything as they would observing the patient’s body language in person. However, when it’s done through WebEx, it’s more limited. You’re at the mercy of their device — we can’t control the camera to zoom in or out.

Establishing ground rules with the patient is important. It’s mostly about raising awareness. You can’t have them taking their doctor’s appointment on their phone while they’re checking out at the grocery store. It has to be conducted professionally. We need your full attention, just like we would in a face-to-face clinic visit, to serve you in the way that’s going to be best for your health.

Tell me about the telepsychiatry treatment options available to Illinois’s incarcerated population.

I was approached by Interim Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, John Baldwin, to have SIU assume care at a couple of the prisons. The program started in the summer of 2018, and it’s expanded into the present DOC arm. This clinic serves several purposes. First, it aligns with our mission to provide high-quality care to a vulnerable population. It also serves as a tremendous learning opportunity for psychiatry residents. Prisons serve as the largest mental health system in the United States. This means that many of the patients we see in the hospitals and in the community have had interactions with the criminal justice system at least once in the past.

I think many psychiatrists (and people in general) think that people who are incarcerated are bad people or at least have made the conscious decision to do something bad. The experience our residents get within Pontiac and Logan Correctional Centers is designed to break down that stereotype. When residents hear the awful lives that our patients have experienced leading up to their incarceration, one begins to understand how that person ended up in prison. The amount of trauma our patients have experienced is unfathomable; and we know the detrimental effects trauma has to one’s health and mental health. I often say to a resident who has just completed a new patient evaluation, “Hearing that patient’s story, I think I would be in his/her shoes right now had I been born into his/her life.” That creates a compassion and empathy for this population that many physicians have never had the opportunity to develop.

Likewise, when the residents learn about the lack of or suboptimal psychiatric care our patients have received throughout their lives, it becomes a first-hand experience in how broken the mental health system is in the U.S. I remind the residents that they will soon be graduating and become experts in mental health — ones who friends and policy-makers will ask them how to make better systems and programs. This experience helps themy see the problems as well as potential solutions. And, finally, it helps residents learn what these patients need to be successful in life — both how to function during their remaining incarceration as well as how to lead successful lives once they are released from prison.

What are some challenges facing telemedicine in the future?

The long-term status of Medicare support for telehealth is unknown. It could expire, leaving a portion of the population without access to it.

If the Ryan Haight Act gets reinstated, that’s a problem. [The act imposes rules requiring practitioners who use telepsychiatry to conduct an in-person medical evaluation, with certain specified exemptions, before prescribing a controlled substance to a client.] We are treating patients in Chicago as well as from Southern Illinois who wouldn’t be able to commute for these appointments. They would lose their care.

The lack of broadband in some rural communities is another limiting factor. I’m working with Laura (Kessel) on the Lieutenant Governor’s Rural Affairs Council to encourage the development of broadband hubs in these towns. It could be a room in an existing medical clinic, a school, a library, a county office, a family resource center – somewhere with sufficient broadband available to give the community members a chance to see a specialist virtually and improve their health. We are launching a pilot project for it later this year.

What is your professional background and path into medicine?

I became interested in medicine while in high school, and my interest never stopped. I received my bachelor’s in Biology from the University of Maine, and then went on to receive my medical degree from Poznan University of Medical Science, in Poland. I completed my family medicine residency at SIU.

During this time, I observed a large technology transformation and utilization of EHRs within our community. This led me to pursue a master’s in health informatics and helped reinforce my belief that technology and health care were going to intermingle more and affect the practice of medicine.

What interested you in the chief medical information officer role?

When I started my family medicine residency, SIU was transitioning from paper charts to electronic, and that’s when I started to see the how this technology would impact physician practices. Receiving a masters in health informatics helped solidify my stance that technology can improve the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, each clinical practice works differently with varying resources leading to inconsistencies in performance.

Nothing is simple when it comes to technology, but the general concept is that we need to ensure that data is clean, structured and aggregated, in order for actions to be made. I have been working on standardizing data capture and data reporting for the last nine years within the SIU Federally Qualified Health Centers. I want to bring those same type of processes to all our clinicians, so that they can react accordingly to help our patients, but also benefit the practice as a whole, as we attempt to better understand the health of the communities we serve.

What’s the biggest misconception about the role of the chief medical information officer?

I don’t fix computers; I am not IT. I can’t change rules that govern medicine like HIPAA and security. My role, in its simplicity, is to ensure that data entered into a variety of information systems can be retrieved, and also interconnected to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency. Unfortunately, with a multi-specialty practice like SIU and its variety of clinicians, defining the standardized workflows can be challenging. Culture change is not without its difficulties.

Rather than focusing on the hardware, the role is really focused on core challenges of creating a culture that reinforces structured data for purposes of analytics and decision-making, with an eye on evolving technology integration to impact patient care.

Unfortunately, with our increasing adoption of biomedical technologies and increasing sources of data within our practices, IT and Informatics staff spend a great deal of time getting these systems and processes to connect when they are not always built to do so. Medical technology isn’t like General Motors. The parts are not necessarily interchangeable.

How do you see digital health growing and evolving at SIU Medicine?

Much like other industries, we need to make the practice more customer-focused, through the utilization of smart devices for self-scheduling, data transmission via wearables, and increased connectivity and collaboration with other health care. All of this needs to work harmoniously without sacrificing patient privacy and confidentiality and without incurring a significant financial impact on the practice.

What are some ways that we can start digital transformation of patient experience?

First and foremost, we need to create better ways for patients to schedule appointments. Behind the scenes that means streamlining of appointment types across the practice so that patients can utilize self-scheduling options while also considering self check in processes like the airline industry.

Where we can, we also need to reduce our dependence on paper intake forms and optimize current technologies to reduce manual processes. In the future, we will be having conversations about other cutting-edge tools like wearables that can sync with the EHR. The goal now and in the future is to integrate technologies and use data-driven decisions that improves patient outcomes.

Equity in digital imagery and care

Traditional medical education and training often relies on imagery of white and lighter skin tones to illustrate disease. Educational materials, including dermatology atlases, have traditionally underrepresented presentations of disease in people of color. This approach leaves learners and clinicians with a narrow view of how to diagnose with variations in skin color. This can lead to representative bias that impacts diagnostic accuracy and deepens the racial divide in access to quality care.

Now SIU School of Medicine is joining leading health systems in adopting a digital tool that can help reduce bias and health disparities in diagnostics. VisualDx is an award-winning digital diagnostic support system that includes the world's largest medical imagery collection with more than 100,000 diverse images. This digital support system is designed to enhance diagnostic accuracy, aid therapeutic decisions, and address issues of health equity.

SIU School of Medicine’s Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion is acquiring the tool through a Provider Quality Improvement Initiative grant awarded by Meridian to the institution last September. The grant supports innovative quality improvement programs, which aim to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes.

“We want to support the healers, teachers and learners within the walls of our clinics, labs and classrooms in ways that advance healing for the diverse communities in which we live,” said Wendi El-Amin, MD, associate dean of equity, diversity and inclusion. “With digital tools like VisualDx, we can continue to educate and diagnose in ways that reduce health care bias in skin of color.”

ECHO digital training resonates with community health care teams

The Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model uses technology to leverage scarce resources, share best practices and teach participants how to better evaluate and monitor their patient outcomes.

Over a summer lunch hour, a group of health care providers and caseworkers from across Illinois have gathered to both talk and listen. They have come to share their insights on asthma, a leading chronic disease in children that causes a narrowing of the airways.

SIU community health worker Tyra Jones first presents a case of an 18-year old high school student recently diagnosed with severe asthma. His condition is likely a result of mold found in the subsidized housing where he lives with his mother. The straight-A student and his coach are concerned that the respiratory illness could affect both the young man’s health and his ability to perform, which in turn could impact a college scholarship he has been offered.

“I’d like some tips to help this student succeed and be the first in his family to go to college,” Jones says. “He deserves that chance.”

Asthma is a common illness — about 1 in 13 people in the United States have it — and the physicians and staff have a wealth of patient experiences to draw upon. Fortunately, what would be an overflow crowd in a medical conference room is instead a comfortable and orderly round-robin group discussion, and it is all online. This is training session number 3 (of 6) in the medical school’s Project ECHO® series on asthma.

ECHO training for community health workers (CHWs) is one of the most in-demand modules offered at SIU School of Medicine. The Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model uses technology to leverage scarce resources, share best practices and teach participants how to better evaluate and monitor their patient outcomes. Project ECHO is a hub and spoke educational model that connects specialists in academic medical centers (“hubs”) to community health workers in rural and underserved communities (“spokes”) via digital workshops and videoconferencing. The ECHO sessions involve a case-based learning approach that contains 15-minute didactic lessons and patient case presentations by CHWs at participating spoke sites.

“ECHO is a very cost-effective way to gather and share ideas and grow community health programs,” says Karen Fraase, director of program development for SIU External Relations. “It started out strong and it just keeps growing.”

The format is designed to be a conversation, using an all-teach, all-learn model aimed at democratizing knowledge, Fraase says. Experts on the hub panel can mentor and discuss their medical experiences with participants who acquire new skills and competencies to better manage patients with complex health conditions. The ECHO model is especially useful at connecting rural providers to specialists across broad regions, delivering first-hand information via computer screen, tablets and smartphones.

SIU’s module includes sessions on opioids, asthma, oral health, hypertension, memory and aging, and community health worker training. A course on child psychiatry is in development. Courses range from 8 to 12 sessions, over different time intervals.

The richness of the hub team’s knowledge and the virtual flexibility allows multiple attendees to enroll as schedules allow. Audience sizes for typical cohorts range from 25 to 75. Popular opioid training sessions led by Kari Wolf, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry, have had 80-90 guests. Participants earn continuing medical education credits for each.

They add to a growing national community of health care providers dedicated to expanding health care access, reducing disparities, improving quality, safety and efficiency, and promoting consistency in care and practice.

Laura Law, PA-C, clinical instructor for Family and Community Medicine in Decatur, attended her first ECHO session as part of a Continuous Quality Improvement committee assignment in 2018, and quickly became an advocate for the training. “I thought it was fantastic,” she says. “I loved that it was so interactive.”

John Flack, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, led the hypertension panel, and encouraged Law to come back and present her own difficult-to-manage clinical cases. She did three.

“Every time you do it, you glean another important idea,” she says. “It was a great opportunity to increase our knowledge of different treatment modalities as well as connecting us with some experts.” Law has spread word of the program’s benefits to care providers in Decatur and to physician assistant colleagues in Carbondale.

Director Karen Fraase is buoyed by the project’s continued evolution and growth. “ECHO is one of the favorite programs I’ve ever worked on. We build these specialty hub teams with community providers and have all these communication channels to help everyone on the team learn. They’re sharing and discovering little nuggets of information.”

“We reach into these different places with the goal to offer evidence-based guidelines for how they can change and improve their own practices, and sometimes they help improve ours.”

► To learn more about ECHO training or register for a session, visit siumed.edu/cpd/project-echo.

Farmer health helpline, services now available statewide

Farming is a challenging and sometimes stressful business. A farmer’s tendency to be self-reliant and keep busy can make caring for one’s health – both physical and mental – an afterthought.

Farmers are also among the most likely to die by suicide, compared with other occupations, according to a 2022 CDC study. Suicide rates overall have grown by 40% in less than two decades.

A statewide support system is now available to help the Illinois farming community. A 24/7 helpline (1-833-FARM-SOS) will connect farmers to health professionals and services.

The Farm Family Resource Initiative (FFRI) was established in 2019 to specifically address mental health needs in Illinois’ farming and agricultural communities. Led by SIU School of Medicine, the FFRI launched a six-county pilot program to provide resources through a telephone hotline connecting farmers with mental health resources and providers.

A USDA grant expanded FFRI to all 102 counties in 2021. The General Assembly appropriated an additional $500,000 during the 2022 legislative session to ensure the program could serve all 102 counties throughout FY2023.

“It’s important for farmers to break the stigma of internalizing their stress and understand they can ask for help,” said State Senator Scott Bennett (D-Champaign). “The FFRI program has already proven its success over the past couple years and has given farmers the opportunity to talk about their struggles to avoid negative consequences.”

“We’ve designed the program to give ongoing outreach, education and training to our rural partners,” said Karen Stallman, FFRI agricultural resource specialist. “We want to improve the health and safety of farm families. It’s another toolkit they can use to keep well and productive. And we continue to expand our services.”

Mental health professionals from Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield staff the helpline. The counselors have both medical expertise and knowledge of the factors that affect farming. The phone number is 1-833-327-6767 (1-833-FARM-SOS). A text option is also available. Call center staff can be emailed at FarmFamilyResourceHelpline@mhsil.com, and counseling services are available to those seeking additional assistance.

► Learn more about the FFRI program at siumed.org/farm.

1970s

Richard Dermody, MD ’77, “St. Joseph's Hospital, Breese, IL will be dedicating their OB surgical suite to myself and Penny Gozia, MD (another SIUSOM grad) in honor of us pioneering the OB/GYN specialty in Clinton County. I was the first and only OB/GYN in the county for seven years beginning in 1981. Dr Gozia joined the practice and was instrumental in renovating the second floor into a Women and Infants Center. My wife and youngest daughter, Melissa, moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2004 to be close to our daughter, Michelle, and her family, and I worked in Everett, WA as an OB/GYN hospitalist until 2013. Dr. Gozia more recently retired but the practice we shared, Southern OB/GYN Associates, is thriving with 4 OBs and several nurse practitioners.”

Allen Gerberding, MD ’77, “Retired life is great! Recommend it. We moved to the foothills of northeast Georgia early summer 2022. Exchanged Illinois winters and grass mowing for pickle ball and concerts on the lawn with friends, food and wine. Pray for peace.”

John Moore IV, MD ’77, is "loving retirement, biking, reading, traveling, lecturing, (and) volunteer medical work."

Rebecca Johnson, MD ’78, is the chief executive officer emeritus of the American Board of Pathology, retiring after nine years. She is currently on the Board of the College of American Pathologists and is the secretary-treasurer and chair-elect of the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Johnson was the chair of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Residency Program director at Berkshire Health Systems, MA from 1992-2012. Honors include 2010 SIU School of Medicine Distinguished Alumna of the Year, American Society for Clinical Pathology Award for Distinguished Service to Pathology, American Society for Clinical Pathology Mastership, and the Association of Pathology Chairs Distinguished Teaching Award in Graduate Medical Education.

Holly Novak, MD ’79, was named 2022 IVCC Distinguished Alumnus. She delivered the keynote address at the college's 56th annual commencement May 14, 2022. https://bit.ly/3zTy481

1980s

Col. John Benitez, MD, MPH ’81, “I have been asked to serve for an additional term on the National Biodefense Science Board by the Secretary of HHS, Xavier Becerra. I will serve for an additional three-year term. In addition, the Governor of Tennessee has renewed me for another four-year term as a member of the Air Pollution Control Board for the State of Tennessee, representing practicing physicians. As of 2022, I am the Tennessee Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer, charged with liaising between civil authorities in Tennessee (Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the TN National Guard), and Region IV FEMA Defense Coordinating Officer and Elements and Army North. Army North is charged with homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities to North America. The Army Reserves honored me with the Joint Service Commendation Medal (for service with the Joint Forces Land Component Command, Army North, from Aug 2020 - Jun 2021), and two Armed Forces Service Medals for response to COVID-19 Mission and for Southwest Border Mission (also 2020-21).”

Steven Ginos, MD ’83, one of Blessing Physician Services' first employed providers, retired May 13 after 16 years with Blessing Health System and 36 years as a family medicine physician. https://bit.ly/3QqSCeX

Tina Smusz, MD ’86, “My husband and I spend much of our time tending our large organic garden and small flock of chickens providing produce for our household and neighbors. Much of my time is dedicated to publicizing health and environmental threats of a 42" diameter fracked gas pipeline that is slowly burrowing its way through our county. Both of our adult children work in fields that address sustainability for people and the planet. Looking forward to traveling this year as we keep an eye on COVID developments. We will be vacationing with fellow SIU grad and spouse later in the year.”

1990s

Lynn Beach, MD ’92, “Retired 1 July, 2022 from the US Navy with 30 years of honorable service in Pensacola, FL. Short-term plans are to fully retire and travel to the National Parks in our 39-ft toy hauler RV over the next year, visiting friends and family along the way. Keeping open the option to work in the future.”

Andrew Kerwin, MD ’92, is a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. He serves as chief of the Division of Trauma/Surgical Critical Care and specializes in Trauma, Emergency General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. In July 2021 he was appointed as the vice chair for faculty development for the Department of Surgery. He also serves as the surgical quality officer at Regional One Health in Memphis and the director of the OR Operations Committee. Additionally, he serves as the chief of trauma at the Elvis Presley Regional Trauma Center at Regional One Health. Since its dedication in 1983, the center has become one of the busiest trauma programs in the country and has a prestigious reputation as a pioneer in the delivery of leading-edge trauma care.

Elizabeth Roll, MD ’96, “spent the last year flying from Alaskan village to village encouraging and giving hundreds of COVID vaccines. She went to schools, bingo halls, clinics, grocery stores, and traveled by plane, snow machine, sled, 4-wheeler, and FJ on the frozen Kuskokwim River.”

Drs. Tim Ishmael, MD ’97, Elaine Fisher, MD ’99, and Keith Cochran, MD ’06 were honored as Litchfield Family Practice Center was named the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce 2022 Business of the Year.

Veling Tsai, MD, JD ’99, has been appointed to the Medical Board of California by Governor Gavin Newsom. Tsai has been a private practitioner at Caring ENT since 2008. He has been a clinical assistant professor of head and neck surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine since 2008 and an attending surgeon at the university's Olive View Medical Center since 2012. He is a member of the California State Bar Association, the American Academy of Legal Medicine and the American College of Legal Medicine, where he served as president in 2019, a position requiring Senate confirmation.

2000s

John David Hartman, MD ’01, “Still work part-time for SIU Family Medicine Residency Program in Carbondale. Have been in Benton, IL (my hometown) for past 12 years; clinical director of Healthy and Youthful Living Clinic. Five back surgeries and dealt with stage 2 B-cell lymphoma last year, but I'm doing great!”

Stacy Sattovia, MD ’02, was inducted as a fellow of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) in March 2022. The fellowship program recognizes AMWA members who have accomplished outstanding achievements in science, medicine or academia. Selective criteria such as leadership and integrity are assessed in addition to time spent teaching, mentoring, experience in a clinical practice and more.

Heather Saavedra, MD ’05, became the program director of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship at Indiana University School of Medicine/Riley Hospital for Children in February.

2010s

Tyler Fitch, MD ’12, “After six years of combined hospitalist practice in pediatrics and internal medicine with time as a physician Informaticist, I accepted a role 30% as adult hospitalist and 70% as director of medical informatics & integration at OSF Healthcare where I supervise IT projects of other part-time physicians across specialties.”

Christopher Stephenson, MD, MHPE ’12, is a consultant in General Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic Rochester where he serves as practice chair for General Internal Medicine, associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency, an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and course director for Mayo's annual Selected Topics in Internal Medicine Hawaii course. He recently graduated in 2022 with his Master's in Health Professions Education (M.H.P.E.) from University of Illinois Chicago with research interests focusing on continuing professional development and survey/assessment validity.

Aisha Wright, MD ’13, has joined Gadsden Regional Medical Center in Alabama as an attending physician with the family medicine residency program.

Kevin Simon, MD ’15, has been named Boston's first-ever chief behavioral health officer. Dr. Simon is an assistant in the department of psychiatry at Boston Children's, instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Commonwealth Fund fellow in minority health policy at Harvard University. He practices as a child and adolescent addiction psychiatrist caring for youth and families through Boston Children's Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program. https://bit.ly/3AjBnqy

2020s

Mackenzie Heywood, MD ’20, was selected to serve as a fourth-year pediatric chief resident at the University of Maryland.

‘On Par for Pediatrics’ expands to help more children

Thanks to our generous supporters, On Par for Pediatrics raised more than $20,000 this year with an expanded mission of supporting all children facing life-altering diseases. Formerly the Camp COCO Charity Golf Outing, this event continues to support the mission of Camp COCO.

SIU Medicine’s pediatrics department has been an integral part of helping to care for the health of children in Springfield and surrounding communities. The funds raised at this year’s golf outing will support young patients and their families, easing their financial burdens by providing overnight lodging, food or transportation for families whose child is receiving extended treatment.

Mark your calendars for June 5, 2023

► To help our pediatrics team and their patients, you can show your support with an online donation at forwardfunder.siumed.edu/pediatrics.

Over $20,000 donations in 2022 helped children and families in need of support.