South Carolina AHEC News & Updates

Dawn Wichmann, a Michigan native and former resident of South Carolina, is returning to the state as Executive Director of Upstate AHEC.   Dawn, who is relocating to Greenville from metro Atlanta, follows former director Fay Brown. Dawn previously led the Lakelands Rural Health Network in Greenwood, SC, as the founding director, serving from 2008-2011. She directed the non-profit organization to expand access and improve the quality of healthcare throughout a rural, six county region. Her experience also includes serving as director of Information Technology/Systems and Informatics at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio, and as director of Health Policy and Regulation at the Illinois Hospital Association. She most recently worked as an information technology and organizational assessment consultant in the metro Atlanta area.   The new Upstate AHEC director holds a bachelor's degree in English and political science and a master's degree in public affairs and

The Office for Healthcare Workforce Analysis and Planning in the South Carolina AHEC Program Office has released a data brief showcasing work done in collaboration with the South Carolina Office of Primary Care to identify naturally occurring primary care service areas in the state.   Primary care service areas (PCSAs) are small geographic areas that are relatively self-contained markets for primary care services. The 95 PCSAs identified in the study were developed using de-personalized 2013 billing data from the South Carolina State Employee Health Plan to identify patient travel patterns for primary care services.   Patient ZIP codes were matched with primary care provider ZIP codes to form the basis of the geographic service areas. An interactive map is available as part of the data brief. Users can find the name of their local PCSA based on their ZIP code and click on that area in the map to learn about local population characteristics, selected health status measures in the

The four regional AHEC Centers of the South Carolina AHEC are pleased to partner with the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control’s Office of Public Health Preparedness to offer Building Resilience in Public Safety Personnel in May and June. This workshop will provide public safety personnel and their departments with skills and information on building resilience during trauma and provide suggestions for individual and organizational responses. Each workshop will begin at 8:30am with check in and a continental breakfast. The program will take place 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with lunch provided. Attend the workshop on one of four upcoming dates: May 20, 2016 Upstate AHEC at the Pelham Medical Center Greer, SC To register, visit: upstateahec.org June 3, 2016 Lowcountry AHEC at the LC AHEC Training Center Walterboro, SC To register, visit: lcahec.com June 17, 2016 Mid-Carolina AHEC at the South Carolina Hospital Association Columbia

Mid-Carolina AHEC is proud to announce the continuation of a partnership begun in 2015 with the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region IV Public Health Training Center.   The Region IV Public Health Training Center   (R-IV PHTC) aims to strengthen competence of the current and future public health workforce in HHS Region IV, expose public health students to the value of working in underserved areas and advocate for public health systems and policies. For this upcoming summer field placement, Lovelace Family Medicine in Prosperity will host Pathways to Practice Scholar award selectee Jennifer Meunier, currently a first-year Masters of Public Health student at the University of South Carolina. Ms. Meunier will be working with Dr. Oscar Lovelace and his staff to assess the effects of physician led weight management in primary care and will conduct research on the benefit of obtaining a body composition analysis f

Upstate AHEC, in collaboration with the Nursing Research Committee of the Greenville Health System, AnMed Health, Nursing Division of Greenville Technical College and Gamma Mu Chapter and Mu Rho Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, is sponsoring the 14 th Annual Research Symposium: Research Impacting Clinical Practice on Friday, September 30 in the Technical Resource Center Auditorium, Barton Campus Greenville Technical College in Greenville. The conference will provide participants with information on the use of the research process, need for research to validate evidence based practice and how the application of findings can impact clinical practice. Abstracts are now being accepted and must be submitted no later than June 1, 2016. If you would like more information about the conference or have questions, please contact Bennie Pettit at bpettit@upstateahec.org or 864-349-1162.

The Pee Dee Echo Society, under the leadership of McLeod Regional Medical Center chief echo sonographer Sherry Gibson, provides continuing professional development through case studies to registered diagnostic cardiac sonographers once a quarter.  This training was initially provided in-house to staff and has expanded to other facilities via videoconferencing technology.  Viewing sites include McLeod Seacoast (Little River, SC), McLeod Medical Center-Dillon (Dillon, SC), New Hanover Regional Medical Center (Wilmington, NC), and host site McLeod Regional Medical Center (Florence, SC).  The newest facility to join the Pee Dee AHEC training is Boice Willis Clinic in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. This collaboration was coordinated by Kay Lambert, Pee Dee AHEC Allied Health Education Coordinator, with the assistance of Area L AHEC in Rocky Mount, NC, who provided the videoconferencing equipment and viewing site for training their area sonographers. The impetus for this collaboration o

Lowcountry AHEC Lowcountry AHEC’s Health Careers Program (HCP) and Health Profession Student (HPS) Program are collaborating on the AHEC Pipeline Connects project for the third consecutive year. This collaboration provides an opportunity for HPS students to practice working as an interprofessional team, while exposing students in the Health Careers Academy (a fundamental component of the South Carolina AHEC HCP program area) to health professions and introducing the basics of team building. Lowcountry AHEC hosted a Pipeline Connects activity in December. Students from MUSC’s School of Medicine, the South Carolina College of Pharmacy and USC Salkehatchie worked with 14 HCA students to share information about their health careers and why they have chosen their respective career paths. Afterward, Lowcountry AHEC HPS coordinators conducted an activity on building effective teams with all of the students. The students enjoyed the activities and Lowcountry AHE