Senator Klobuchar and Medical Students Talk Health Reform
The Academic Health Center hosted a roundtable about health care reform with Senator Amy Klobuchar and seven Medical School students. The students recommended that the health care system needs to not only be more cost-effective, but it also needs to shift its focus to reward providers for higher quality outcomes such as preventing illnesses. They also suggested the health system needs to do more to attract family doctors and specialists to underserved rural areas with recruiting, loan forgiveness or incentives.
Senator Klobuchar recognized the importance of the opinions of the medical students as they are the future of the health care system. Klobuchar made it clear that she wants to see change in the health care system. “I believe the real focus here should be on making it more affordable, higher quality and reducing costs,” she told KARE-11. “And if none of these bills do that I'm not going to support them.”
- Read and watch the story on KARE-11.
Breaking New Ground
University officials broke ground for a 65,000 square-foot expansion of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR). The expansion is part of the Biomedical Discovery District, a $292 million state-funded investment in biomedical research. The facility will foster collaboration among researchers in treating and curing diseases like breast cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes.
Smokeless Tobacco as Harmful as Cigarettes
Chewing tobacco has always been thought to be less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but a new study from the U of M indicates that this is not true. Irina Stepanov, Masonic Cancer Center, and colleagues found that, although raw tobacco and snuff do not produce smoke that can be inhaled, one pinch of such substances may expose the user to the equivalent amount of smoke from five cigarettes.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are common environmental contaminants that are created as a result of incomplete burning of coal, wood, fatty meat, or organic matter. Continued exposure to these over a period of time can lead to cancer. Until recently, many scientists thought that because the tobacco was not burned when used, only trace amounts of PAH existed in snuff.
“This study, once again, clearly shows us that smokeless tobacco is not safe," Stepanov said.
- Read more about the research in U.S. News and World Report
- Learn more about tobacco and cancer at the Masonic Cancer Center Web site
Stimulus Grant Boosts U Research, Local Students
As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) begins to boost our country’s economy, its health-research stimulus grants are directly impacting the University and its community. Numerous faculty in the Academic Health Center have applied for and received Summer Student Supplement grants, which allow University and non-University students, as well as local teachers, the chance to participate in summer research on campus.
Quick Tips for Fighting Acne
Whether you just hit puberty or went through it 30 years ago, those pesky little pimples don’t care. Acne is an inflammatory disease, which is focused in the oil, or sebaceous, glands of your skin. Acne surfaces when dead skin cells and bacteria accumulate at the surface of the gland and plug the opening.
The $292 million Minnesota Biomedical Research Program will add nearly 400,000 square feet of critically important research space near TCF Bank Stadium and Mariucci Arena. The biomedical research district is already home to the Lions Research Building wrapped by the McGuire Translational Research Facility and the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.
