Summer 2020
Celebrating 30 years
Three stories celebrating three decades of Washington State University in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver » More ...
Medical Health
Summer 2020
At home on the range
Range Health, a nonprofit academic health network, and its mobile unit bring health care to rural areas. » More ...
Spring 2020
Cannabis in WA state
The legalization of recreational cannabis in Washington state and Colorado in 2012 opened a box full of questions and debates about the drug and its related crop, hemp.
What is the effect on youth? Will crime go up? How does cannabis interact with other drugs and medicines? What health claims are accurate? How does the potency of cannabis affect mental health? These gaps, and many others, in our knowledge—combined with unverified claims by both proponents and opponents of legalized cannabis—make it difficult to find the best ways to regulate and manage the substance.
To answer the call, almost 100 Washington State University researchers have begun … » More …
Spring 2019
Medical Big Data
Big data is a powerful new tool in the medical bag, and one that can put patients in charge of their own health. Medical students at Washington State University are learning about the potential use of the tool on medical teams, while a new data analytics program at WSU teaches future data analysts. » More ...
Winter 2017
Medical leaders keep a community-based focus
Helping guide WSU’s community-based medical education are associate deans assigned to each of the regional hubs where students will spend their third and fourth years working alongside practicing physicians and others.
All are recognized innovators in medical education and were hired by WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine following a nationwide search.
They are Dr. Larry Schecter at WSU Everett, Dr. Kevin Murray at WSU Vancouver and Dr. Farion Williams at WSU Tri-Cities.
“These associate deans will teach, recruit faculty to teach, and further the college mission by building out clinical partnerships with the rural and underserved areas,” said Ken … » More …
Winter 2017
Video: WSU’s first medical students
Winter 2017
Reconsidering health
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates proposed that four basic personalities were driven by excess or lack of bodily fluids, the “humors.” Discredited by biochemistry, we may consider the idea humorous, but Hippocrates’ theories began a centuries-long consideration of temperaments and personality in psychology and philosophy.
Other ideas of human health were first spurned and then accepted. Germ theory, the thought that many diseases are caused by microorganisms, was treated with disdain when it was proposed in the sixteenth century. It didn’t receive its due until nineteenth-century experiments by cholera researcher John Snow and chemist Louis Pasteur, among others, proved germ theory’s validity.
Even today we continue … » More …
Winter 2017
Ethics and effectiveness in medicine
“Can you be an effective physician without also being an ethical physician?” That’s the question students in the inaugural class of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University faced for the first time on day two of classes. They’ll revisit it regularly as they make their way towards the MD degree and entry into a profession that has, many bioethicists and physicians believe, an ethic built right into it. To say that there is an ethic internal to medicine is to say that certain kinds of moral responsibilities are built right into what it means to be a part of … » More …
Winter 2017
Medicine to all corners
Washington State University has embarked on one of its most ambitious expansions. The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine is carving out its physician-training niche by emphasizing innovation, technology, and the importance of bringing high-quality care to some of the state’s most underserved regions.
The request came last spring.
Jim and Linda Bauer have opened their home to visiting symphony musicians, international artists, and others traveling to the Tri-Cities, and community leaders were turning to them again. This time, the Bauers were asked if they’d host a medical student for a weeklong stay at their Richland home.
“We were like, ‘Of course,’” recalls Linda … » More …
Winter 2017
Seeing double
The Washington State Twin Registry is a powerful aid in promoting better health.
Glen Duncan is an outlier in an obesogenic environment. While he’s fit and trim, two in three Americans carry too much weight for their own good and are largely sedentary during work and leisure time. It would help if he had a twin to compare himself with. As it is, he studies other twins in the hope of teasing out why some people are drawn to healthy behavior, others not.
Duncan has long been a runner, from high school races to weekend 10Ks. For the past ten years he has practiced … » More …