NIH grant to fund researcher development, increase cancer research scope Research suggests that where you live in Illinois impacts your likelihood of dying from certain diseases, specifically cancer. Low-income, rural communities experience significant cancer health disparities, including lower screening rates, increased incidence, later stage at detection, poorer survival rates and higher mortality. A new National Institutes of Health grant will support a research partnership at the medical schools of Southern Illinois University and Washington University to further investigate the cancer

Tom Miller, MD, chairman and residency program director of SIU Quincy Family Medicine, has received the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP). The award is given to a family medicine physician who combines family medicine education and service to the community. Miller will receive the award at the IAFP Annual Awards Banquet on Friday, October 9. Miller, an associate professor family and community medicine, joined the School of Medicine in 1994. He completed a family medicine residency at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill. (1992)

Harald Lausen, DO, MA, the chief medical officer of SIU HealthCare and assistant dean for clinical education at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has been appointed chair of the Bureau of Osteopathic Education for the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). The AOA Bureau of Osteopathic Education studies the full continuum of osteopathic medical education and makes recommendations to the AOA board on ways to improve osteopathic medical education and policies that support educational accreditation and certification programs. Lausen, a professor of clinical family & community

The SIU Board of Trustees has voted to appoint Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, as Dean and Provost for Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The appointment is effective January 1 and is pending a final contract. Kruse, a professor of family medicine, has been Executive Associate Dean of SIU School of Medicine and Chief Executive Officer of SIU HealthCare since 2013. He first joined the school in 1984. “Dr. Kruse’s knowledge of the medical school, his leadership experience and his commitment to serving the region position him to continue the School of Medicine’s positive trajectory,” said

Twenty faculty physicians at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine are included in Best Doctors® in America 2015 database. Best Doctors includes more than 45,000 U.S. physicians, chosen by peer review and representing the top five percent of physicians in more than 40 medical specialties. The SIU physicians, all members of SIU HealthCare or SIU Center for Family Medicine, are: Beau J. Batton, MD, associate professor and division chief of pediatric neonatology; Carol Bauer, MD, professor and division chair of otolaryngology; Lucinda S. Buescher, MD, professor, division chief of

Coordination to improve quality, lower costs Patients with complex brain and spine disorders may benefit from a new, multispecialty clinic at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. The Neuroscience Institute (NSI) will consolidate SIU’s departments of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry into a single-site outpatient clinical care center staffed by more than 50 neuroscience providers. The institute will care for patients with a range of disorders including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, spine disease

High school students interested in careers in medicine are invited to join Medical Explorers Post 998, sponsored by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Abraham Lincoln Council of the Boy Scouts of America. An informational kick-off meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the West Auditorium of 801 N. Rutledge St. in Springfield. Medical Explorers is open to all local high school students between the ages of 14 and 20. SIU faculty, staff and students will guide teens through a wide range of medical situations, share firsthand experiences and offer advice to

Springfield area high school freshmen interested becoming doctors are invited to take their career explorations one step further. Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Springfield Public Schools (SPS) will host a Physician Preparatory Pipeline Program (P4) informational meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16 for students and parents. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. in the South Auditorium of the medical school's main instructional facility, 801 N. Rutledge St., in Springfield. P4 is a partnership between the medical school and SPS that is designed for freshman high school students

Central Illinois patients with difficult to control high blood pressure may benefit from a new hypertension clinic at SIU Medicine, 751 N. Rutledge, Springfield. Patients who must take multiple medications, find it difficult to control their high blood pressure or are concerned they may have a secondary cause for their hypertension are urged to contact the new clinic, which will take appointments on Wednesday and Thursdays. The clinic will provide comprehensive hypertension services, including 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring studies, non-invasive measures of heart and vascular

Aug. 26, 2015 - Southern Illinois University School of Medicine researcher Kathleen Campbell, PhD, professor in the Department of Surgery, has secured a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance her decades of research in hearing loss prevention and treatment. The total budget for the project is $2.8 million. This grant will determine the optimal dosing level of D-methionine (D-met), a compound that has been shown to prevent hearing loss. D-met is an amino acid that has been found to protect against noise-induced hearing loss and ototoxicity, or damage to the ear