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Spring 2024

Medical Health

Peaceful scene with smartphone
Winter 2017

Be mindful with your smartphone

Tracy Skaer, a pharmacotherapy professor at Washington State University Spokane, knows that our fast-moving, constantly-changing world can stress us out. That includes the smartphones that many of us carry around constantly. A trained mindfulness practitioner, Skaer suggests using those same smartphones to give our minds a break from the stresses of daily life.

Skaer recommends some of the following smartphone apps to help with mindfulness exercises:

Headspace

Insight Timer 

Calm

Aware

Mindfulness Meditation

Stress & Anxiety (Pacifica)

Relax Meditation

» More …

Midwives tend to a newborn baby while the exhausted mother rests in bed, circa 1450. Another child lies in a cradle beside her, being rocked by a servant. Original Artwork: A miniature engraving from 'Histoire de la Belle Helaire' on a 15th Century manuscript from the Imperial Library, Paris. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Spring 2017

Call the midwife

ViviAnne Fischer practices midwifery in her clinic near Pullman, where you can see her connection to the long and complicated history surrounding the practice.

In a green-colored house along a dirt road, at the top of a set of stairs, a large, nondescript black suitcase stands before a crammed bookshelf, her “library” for families. Inside the suitcase is a mix of new, modern medical equipment beside bottles of herbal extracts.

On the other side of the room is an odd-shaped stool at the foot of a bed. The bed is almost cot-like but the wooden frame poking out from beneath the quilt is carved. The … » More …

Winter 2016

Knowing what to ask

Researchers believe greater interaction between doctors and patients can help improve the quality of care. But studies conducted at WSU Spokane showed that too often patients don’t know what questions they should be asking during medical exams and follow up visits.

To help, an interdisciplinary WSU health care team that included patients as well as medical professionals developed the following list of questions you should consider asking, particularly when being prescribed a new medication.

Why am I taking this medication and what will it do for me?
When and how should I take this medication? With or without food?
What are the … » More …

Fall 2016

Victoria Tung ’96

Some traveled for three days through the humid air of Vietnam to get to the clinic offered by Victoria Tung ’96 and her colleagues.

“We were in one of the poorest regions of Vietnam,” Tung says. Over the course of a week, the all-volunteer Venture to Heal team offered two clinics, treating nearly 1,300 people. “We had a 67-year-old man who had never before seen a health care provider.”

“I have always been interested in global health issues and in serving people in underprivileged areas,” Tung says. That passion led her to her first jobs after graduating from WSU with a nutrition degree, working as … » More …

Medical group team
Summer 2016

A team approach to health care

Matt Wild is battling ALS and knows what’s coming.

He has nothing but praise for the treatment professionals that the U.S. Veteran’s Administration and his personal physician have assembled for him. But it was an experience with health science students at WSU Spokane in February that left him feeling optimistic about the future of medical care.

“They brought together students from different aspects of the health sciences,” recalls Wild, who was diagnosed in early 2015 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative condition often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Each team was able to look at my case with this cross-over of training and … » More …