The National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention has presented SIU School of Medicine (SIU SOM) its Skin Smart Campus Award in recognition of the school’s efforts to educate and protect against the disease. Medical school students and staff have pledged to promote skin cancer prevention and sun safety education and not allow indoor tanning devices on its the campus and in its affiliated buildings. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the U.S., with melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—as one of the most common cancers diagnosed among young adults. The Indoor Tan-Free Skin Smart

by Aaron Peach and Mary Dickerson The National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention has recognized SIU School of Medicine as a Skin Smart Campus. A 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s call to action to prevent skin cancer prompted the Indoor Tan-Free Skin Smart Campus Initiative, which drew a strong associations between indoor tanning use and skin cancer. As a Skin Smart Campus, SIU School of Medicine supports public health efforts to inform the general public of skin cancer prevention strategies and to improve community access to sun protection materials. SIU is committed to skin cancer prevention and

Rural and Urban America: Two sides of the same coin By TJ Albers, MA In late 2019, our team was working on a document called “A Path to Improve Rural Health: A Series of Policy Recommendations to Improve the Health of Illinois and America’s Rural improve health in rural Illinois." Now, rural areas of Illinois and the U.S. face very difficult challenges in health and health care delivery. This brief was the culmination of months of research and analysis stemming from the Illinois Rural Health Summit in August 2018. This event allowed us to meet with stakeholders in different sectors from

In 2019, Dean Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, declared that SIU School of Medicine would become an anti-racist institution. OEDI has been at the forefront of implementing this commitment across the entire organization. But in 2020, societal events pushed the need for this work into the foreground. COVID-19 began to infect communities, taking a disproportionate toll on people of color. The data shined a bright light on health care disparities that have existed for centuries in the United States. As families were isolating at home, two brutal deaths of African Americans occurred at the hands of local law

Nearly every industry in our community has felt the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The farming and agriculture industry in Illinois is certainly no exception. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the lockdowns and closures in response to COVID-19 are pushing many farm owners to their financial limits as commodity prices, food demands and biofuel demands drop. In an industry that has already faced years of challenging production and market conditions, these financial difficulties are cutting even deeper into farmers' already-thin margins. And for many farm

The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Center for Rural Health and Social Services Development (CRHSSD) partners with our rural and agricultural neighbors through the Farm Family Resource Initiative (FFRI).