Archive: Mar 2023

  1. Action Highlights: Testimonies Before the Appropriations Committee

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    Last month, you may recall that 15 faculty members provided testimony to the Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly, supporting full funding for UConn Health in the biennial budget. Many other faculty members have directly contacted their own legislators.

    We are writing to remind you that the legislature’s work on the budget is far from over, and it’s critical for elected officials to hear from our members throughout their deliberation process. If you haven’t contacted your own state representative and senator yet, now would be an excellent time to reach out to them! You can find your legislators’ contact details by clicking this link: FIND MY LEGISLATOR. Please share your message with us, and let us know how they respond.

    For inspiration, we would recommend reading excerpts of faculty testimony below. Then, share your own story about UCH and how your work supports our mission for the public good. Please urge legislators to (1) fully fund UCH; and (2) permanently remove the state’s unfunded legacy costs from the UCH operating budget.

    Warm regards,
    Lara and Laura

    Laura Haynes, UCHC-AAUP Chapter President
    Lara Shepard-Blue, UCHC-AAUP Executive Director

    HIGHLIGHTS OF 2.15.23 FACULTY TESTIMONY TO THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE:

    Laura Haynes, Professor in the Center on Aging and the Department of Immunology at UConn Health I am president of the faculty union at UConn Health, representing 650 faculty members in the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, and Graduate School. I would like to thank each of you for your leadership and support for UConn Health during extremely challenging times.

    Our Union is proud to represent faculty members who, every day, provide top-quality health care services for Connecticut residents, conduct cutting-edge scientific research in our laboratories, and train the state’s future physicians, dentists, and scientists. The COVID pandemic has brought renewed attention to the need to combat inequities in access to health care and access to affordable higher education. At UConn Health, the state’s only public academic medical center, we are a shining example of our state’s commitment to combating these inequities. We provide an affordable option for Connecticut students to pursue careers in medicine, dental medicine, and scientific research. Our members care for the most vulnerable residents of our state, often when other providers will not. In addition, we are the state’s largest provider of dental services to Medicaid recipients. We are a public, academic medical center that works for the public good.

    Investments in UConn Health help to build Connecticut’s future workforce while helping to take care of its most vulnerable residents and supporting research to benefit the well being of Connecticut’s residents in a myriad of ways. Considering that Connecticut’s fiscal health is stronger than it has been in decades, it is difficult for us to understand why the Governor would contemplate cuts to either UConn or UConn Health. We should be talking about how to expand the health care services and educational opportunities that we offer, not defending them against cutbacks.

    We are asking for you to continue to support our critical mission by:
    (1) Fully funding our block grants for both UConn and UConn Health; and
    (2) Permanently removing the state’s unfunded legacy costs from our UConn Health operating budget in order to help to make our research grants much more competitive.

    Thank you for your time and continued support.

    Bruce J. Mayer, Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences, UConn Health “In terms of education, we train the doctors and dentists who will be practicing in the state for the coming generations. Many of our trainees stay in Connecticut—chances are, each of you on the Appropriations Committee has at least one health care professional trained at UConn. UConn Health also provides health care for all our state’s residents, not just those with “good” insurance. And in research, which I know best, we perform cutting-edge biomedical research, grow the local economy by creating jobs and training opportunities, and jump-start the formation of new biotech companies. In the 23 years since I moved my own laboratory to UConn Health from Boston, we have brought millions of dollars to the state from federal grants, trained and employed dozens of residents, obtained patents on new technology, and developed innovative tools to study tumor cells and predict their behavior and response to drugs.”

    Alix Deymier, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UConn Health “I was hired as part of the CT BioScience initiative in 2017 which in part created the Biomedical Engineering Department at UConn Health. Since I have been here, I have had 4 PhD students, 11 undergraduates, and 6 medical and dental students who have worked at or graduated from my lab. Many of these individuals now work for industries or the medical sector in Connecticut (Alexion, Medtronics, Danbury Dental Clinic, Hartford Health, etc…). They learned critical skills in my laboratory which allowed them to be qualified workers for local companies. My research has also brought in the most prestigious NSF grant (CAREER Award) as well as an NIH R03 grant which provided additional graduate student jobs as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in indirect funds to support UConn Health. Not to mention the NIH R01 and the DoD grants that are currently in the works. In addition, I teach in the department of Biomedical Engineering at UConn (Storrs). I drive twice a week to teach nearly 100 undergraduate students about biomaterials. I teach them how to build implants, cardiac devices, neural electrodes, are the bits and bobs that our clinicians will one day put into our bodies. I make sure that they have the knowledge to take those local jobs and develop materials that I will be proud to have implanted some day… A decision to cut the UConn budget would be a decision to stop investing in CT. We work so hard to bring in large amounts of money, to increase the quality of research and thus the UConn reputation, to provide hands on and didactic learning experiences that ensure that the next generation of engineers/doctors/dentists are qualified in CT, and thus create a workforce for innovative industry in the state.”

    Martin Freilich, Professor, School of Dental Medicine, UConn Health “The School of Dental Medicine is the only public dental school in New England. I have spent my career at the School of Dental Medicine treating patients, conducting research, and working to develop new technology. My primary overall responsibility, however, has been training our students and residents. I have even had the amazing opportunity to train the children of School of Dental Medicine graduates. I am in a unique position to tell citizens of Connecticut that our fine dental school continues to attract the best and brightest students and residents. The School of Dental Medicine continues to recruit and retain a dedicated and accomplished group of faculty.
    It is important for Connecticut citizens to know that the School of Dental Medicine patient clinics are the largest single provider of dental services to Connecticut’s underserved populations and Connecticut’s citizens with disabilities. The School of Dental Medicine also has the largest dental emergency service in the State. More than 60% of practicing dentists in Connecticut are now proud alumni of the School of Dental Medicine. Our effective research productivity and related technology transfer helps to provide new treatments for our population and has potential to have great positive economic impact on our State.”

    Ian Thomas McNeill, Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery and Co-Director, Scoliosis and Spinal Deformity Surgery, UConn Health “UConn Health places the patient first, not the patient’s insurance type first. We are the institution that serves everyone. We never turn anyone away, even for subspecialty care, due to insurance type. Many of the patients I see have Husky/Medicaid and struggle to find a neurosurgeon or spine surgeon that will accept their insurance. UConn Health takes pride in stepping up to provide excellence in health care to these patients. However, we do so much more than providing excellent clinical care to the most vulnerable Connecticut citizens and patients. Divisions like neurosurgery are doing complex brain and spine surgeries not considered possible at UConn in recent years past…
    Ultimately, I chose UConn Health for its excellence now and the immense opportunity in the future. I chose UConn Health because I know I will never have to tell a patient I cannot see you because I do not take your insurance… Every day I choose to invest in UConn Health. Today, I ask the Appropriations Committee to invest as well in the health of CT citizens, the future doctors that will service CT patients, the researchers that are finding treatments to diseases, and the long-term future of UConn Health.”

    Karen Steinberg, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UConn Health “I’m a clinical psychologist and associate professor and have worked in the department of psychiatry at UConn Health for over 20 years. I have been able to focus my efforts on research in psychotherapy, attachment and child social-emotional development; teaching of medical, graduate, and psychiatry residents; clinical practice addressing anxiety, depression, and developmental trauma; and building programs that foster the well-being of families with young children. I have been very fortunate to have spent much of my professional career at UConn Health, which has allowed me to develop prevention and early intervention programs through collaborations with state agencies such as the Office of Early Childhood. Since 2007, I have directed a home visitation program, UConn Health Parenting, that brings support and services to at-risk families. We have served mothers, fathers, and young children, providing home visits, developmental guidance, and an array of psychoeducational and support groups and linkage to other community resources. This program is meant to offer primary and secondary prevention, build protective factors, and improve the negative physical and emotional health trajectories associated with exposure to early adversities. In addition to UConn Health Parenting, I, along with a skilled and dedicated team, developed and oversee another early intervention program called Mind over Mood. Mind over Mood began as a clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a home-based psychotherapeutic treatment for maternal depression. It has expanded to become a statewide initiative that seeks to address maternal mental health problems and prevent the deleterious consequences that may result if left untreated. We need only glance at recent headlines to observe the devastation associated with unaddressed postpartum depression and psychosis. Mind over Mood is engaged with providing evidence-informed treatment for PMADs (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders) and with enhancing the workforce of competent clinicians trained to care for this important and underserved population. In addition to operating a specialized clinical service we have trained close to 150 therapists throughout Connecticut since 2012 with whom we triage referrals from the network of home visitation programs. UConn Health has been critical in the development of all of this work.”

    Eran Agmon, Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, UConn Health “I am a new professor at the medical school, having moved to Farmington from Stanford University this last summer to establish a new laboratory that is deciphering the bacterial interactions that take place within our bodies and our environments, are intimately tied to our metabolic and immune health, and whose dysfunction contributes to many diseases. I was drawn to UConn Health because of its rich research environment, interdisciplinary centers established by the Bioscience CT initiative, and the public mission of helping the people of Connecticut maintain healthy lives.
    The research at UConn Health advances the public’s understanding of diseases, develops technologies for monitoring our health, and establishes therapies for preventing and countering disease. It is critical for the state to continue funding these efforts, so that we can nurture a research community that will retain researchers that have come to UConn Health in recent years such as myself, and continue to serve the people of Connecticut with cutting-edge medical options that keep up with the rest of the country.”

    Beiyan Zhou, Professor, Immunology, UConn Health “During the past 7 years, I have trained multiple PhD, MD/PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows with the solid support of UCH. Our innovations not only contributed to the breakthrough discoveries of the research community but also the potential for translational biomedicine and patent applications. Fellows from my lab were also recognized with prestigious awards from various national and international research communities.
    However, such dedication to striving for a healthier future for CT should not be jeopardized by short of necessary state support. With the current budget proposal, as a researcher, we will be forced to face serious challenges to advance critical research at a meaningful pace, training quality students for the next generation of clinical doctors, researchers, and inventors; it will also force researchers to face the difficult choice of letting go of research talents, or potential innovative investigations.”

    Kirsten Ek, Assistant Professor, Hospitalist, UConn Health “UCONN Health has honored its commitment to the public through this COVID 19 pandemic, working long, arduous hours, setting aside family commitments, and putting ourselves and families at personal health risk in order to provide the best care at the bedside for the members of our community. It was our honor and privilege to do so. We intend to continue to serve all who fall ill and enter our doors in their time of medical need, but to do so at our best, we need our health center and our medical, dental, public health and graduate schools to be robust. Adequate and stable funding helps us be prepared for any crisis that arises, and to further our work at this award-winning medical and research center. Please help us – we already cope with unfunded liabilities that other state institutions and their employees do not have to contend with. To not have our funding request met would be devastating to our mission to serve the most vulnerable in our state. Tuition raises will be devastating to our socioeconomically diverse student body. We strive hard to have our student body reflect our community – and funding cuts in a time when many families are already struggling to pay tuition means our state’s students will be exiting medical, dental and public health school burdened by even more debt -and this in a time when the state has a surplus. Please, help us stay strong. Protect our mission and the care we provide. Help us stay ready for the next crisis – and recover from the last.”

    Jeffrey Hoch, Professor, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, UConn Health  “I lead a team of talented investigators at UConn Health developing state-of-the-art tools and resources for applying a powerful technology called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to the study of biologically important molecules such as proteins. NMR has important biomedical applications in drug discovery (virtually all drugs target a protein), manufacturing of biological agents such as monoclonal antibodies, and disease diagnosis, as well as basic science applications including elucidating biochemical pathways. Some of you may be aware that we recently received a $40M NSF grant, the largest grant in the history of the University of Connecticut, to develop a nationwide Network for Advanced NMR. We were delighted to have many legislators and Governor Lamont visit our facility last year.
    In addition to the Network for Advanced NMR, UConn Health is also home to two other national resources for biomolecular NMR supported by NIH, the Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (bmrb.io) and the National Center for Biomolecular NMR Data Processing and Analysis (nmrbox.org). These national resources have created jobs for highly-skilled workers and provided world-class opportunities for training the next generation of scientists. However sustaining them is becoming increasingly challenging because of the rising cost of salaries and benefits. The proposed budget that cuts state support for UConn will not only threaten our ability to maintain existing jobs, it will severely undermine our efforts to further strengthen UConn.”

    Agnes Kim, Associate Professor, Calhoun Cardiology “I have worked at UConn Health as a cardiologist and medical educator for the past 9 years. I specialize in cardiac imaging and helping patients with cancer who develop heart problems as a consequence of their cancer treatment. I am proud of my work in training Connecticut’s future doctors and researchers. UConn Health is the only public academic medical center in the state. Any reductions to its budget will be detrimental.”

    Brady B. Lonergan, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, UConn Health “I work clinically as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist, and I run the inpatient psychiatry consult service at John Dempsey Hospital seeing patients admitted to medical and surgical services. As part of my work, I help teach and train third- and fourth-year medical students as well as first- through fourth-year psychiatry residents. In this capacity, I’ve already helped guide former medical students and residents who are now on staff as trainees and faculty. I chose to work at UConn because I value the mission of addressing the healthcare needs of our predominantly Medicaid and Medicare populations, I value the mission of teaching and training the future physicians of our state, and I appreciate that the state has historically invested in its future through our academic and clinical institutions, through public policy and through social welfare programs. I and the other individuals that select to work at UConn as faculty do so because they believe in the overarching mission of investing in the future of the state.”

    John Birk, Professor, Gastroenterology, UConn Health “By supporting UCONN health you are supporting the medical school and its inclusive admissions policy to all. Also, the interns, residents and fellows who very commonly stay become the future doctors in the state. Clearly a worthwhile investment. But this is only one benefit of the institution. Furthermore, you are supporting health care to a wide range of people. Although all hospitals in the state do a fine job in taking care of the acutely ill, I feel we are especially good at longitudinal care. We maintain the wellness and health maintenance of many of those that don’t have access to private outpatient offices for various reasons and barriers. Money, language, understanding and transportation. We are well developed in all these areas. We have an excellent social work department, adept at language line use and connected to all the public transportation means. Recently, our group took care of a Bosnian speaking patient without missing a step. Once here on campus we have a very efficient shuttle system to the various areas patients need to go to. Because of these factors and high-quality care our clinical operation continues to grow impressively. We are a destination for quality health care nowadays.”

    David Gregorio, Professor and Director, UConn Program in Applied Public Health Sciences, UConn Health “Concerns about health inequities, climate change, substance abuse, COVID, gun violence, mental illness, environmental degradation, and the like, have never been greater. UConn’s Program in Applied Public Health Science has responded to these challenges by expanding its curriculum and enrolling a record number of students who, the majority of whom identify as members of underrepresented communities, and consistently placing our graduates in leadership of our state and local health institutions. By doing so, Connecticut is reassured that such investments in prevention will return multiple benefits. Economic analyses make clear that the fiscal consequences of public health prevention efforts exceed their costs 6 to 10 fold. Doing less is a prescription for a decline in the physical, social and economic well‐being of our community.”

    Caroline N Dealy, Associate Professor, School of Dental Medicine, UConn Health “The evidence for UConn’s value is the service it provides for the state by educating and training the skilled workforce Connecticut needs and demands, and by making new discoveries that change our lives for the better. Please, don’t hamstring UConn’s ability to serve. Imposing cuts by not funding UConn’s and UConn Health’s budget requests will backfire when the cutting-edge discoveries and skilled workforce born and nurtured at UConn are no longer available to fuel our State’s economic growth. Faculty educators, researchers and inventors like me; our hardworking staff; and our eager, ambitious students are already doing our part to serve Connecticut’s needs. Please don’t starve the hand that feeds.”
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