Dr. James Skatrud, Professor of Medicine, received a Sleep Academic Award from the National Institutes of Health which will provide the opportunity for our institution to develop teaching initiatives for sleep medicine.  He and his co-investigators, Drs. Steven Weber, Mark Albanese, and Susan Skochelak, are funded $432,000 over five years.  Their overall goal is to develop a sleep medicine educational initiative that will provide medical students, residents, and practitioners with the assessment and management skills necessary to optimally care for patients with sleep disorders.
There is a strong need for sleep medicine education.  Over 100 sleep disorders are described in the latest issue of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders which significantly impact the quality of life, aggravate existing illnesses in individual patients, increase mortality and morbidity, and pose general risks to overall public health.  The prevalence of sleep disordered breathing in the working adult population of the US has been reported to be as high as 24%.  Sleep disorders are particularly conspicuous in the industrialized nations, where over 20% of the adult work force is employed in shift work and the adult population sleeps approximately 20% less per day than the workforce of 100 years ago.  Despite these facts, few physicians in practice have even elementary training in the diagnosis and management of sleep problems, and sleep disorders are not included in the formal curriculum of most of the nations' medical schools.  Assessment of patients' sleeping habits is not generally part of the routine history and physical examination performed in clinical settings.  As a consequence, our own data estimated that 92% of women and 82% of men with moderate to severe sleep apnea have not been clinically diagnosed.  Clearly this information demonstrates a need for physician education in sleep disorders medicine aimed at all levels of personnel from medical students and residents in training to primary care and specialist physicians in practice.
There are three main goals of the program.  First, is to make sleep medicine education an integral part of the medical student curriculum.  Educational objectives will be defined by obtaining broad faculty input via a multidisciplinary advisory committee, which consists of Drs. Ruth Benca, John Jones, Steven Barczi, David Katz, Mae Hla, Jerome Dempsey, and Terry Young.  The second goal is to generate an interdisciplinary educational program for physicians who are in training and in practice at our institution.  The educational focus will be to provide information on obtaining an accurate sleep history, recognizing common sleep disorders and proposing appropriate management strategies.  Lastly, is to provide a research/educational opportunity in sleep medicine for students and physicians in training in a model primary care clinic.  A simple survey questionnaire will be pilot tested in a model primary care clinic to determine its effect on the recognition and management of common sleep disorders.  Dr. Skatrud and his colleagues also hope to establish a Sleep Resource Center where educational materials, such as videos, literature and internet web sites will be available in sleep medicine for medical students, residents and practitioners.
Upon completing the curriculum, students, trainees and practitioners should be able to establish a preliminary diagnosis for common sleep disorders and have a basic understanding of the most effective interventions and referral options.  If you would like additional information regarding the sleep education initiative please contact Dr. James Skatrud, 263-3035.

Health Insurance:  The Dual Choice enrollment period is October 5-23, 1998.  Dual Choice is the annual opportunity for employees enrolled in the State of Wisconsin health insurance plan to change health plans or change coverage, from individual to family, without penalty of waiting periods or exclusions for pre-existing conditions.  If you wish to change to a new plan, or increase coverage from single to family, you must submit a new health insurance application to your benefits office no later than October 23rd. 
EPIC Dental and Major Medical Insurance:  The open enrollment period for this supplemental dental and medical plan in October 5-23, 1998.  The application to enroll or add family members must be received by October 23rd.
Dental Insurance:  The Dentacare 160 plan (formerly know as Dentacare Smile Plus) is open for participation only to Faculty, Academic Staff, Graduate Assistants (Teaching and Project/Program Assistants are represented and not eligible) and non-represented Classified employees.  Eligible employees may enroll in this plan by submitting an application during the enrollment period, October 5-23, 1998.  For employees who are currently enrolled, this is your only opportunity to change dental clinics and to increase coverage from individual to family outside of a "qualifying event" (marriage, dependent's birth).  All applications must be received by October 23rd.
Employee Reimbursement Account (ERA):  The open enrollment dates for this plan are October 5 to November 6, 1998.  If you didn't participate in ERA in 1998 you may enroll during this limited open enrollment for medical and dependent day care expenses you expect to incur between January 1 and December 31, 1999.  Employees who participated in ERA in 1998 must re-enroll for 1999.  The deductions for 1998 do not carry over to 1999.  ***Special Enrollment Feature***  This year the ERA open enrollment will feature an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.  Employees enrolling in the ERA plan will complete a worksheet in their packet and, using the touch tone keypad on their telephone will enroll in the plan using a toll-free "800" line.  No paper application to file is one good feature as well as 24 hour a day availability of the IVR system.  The system will send you a confirmation of your enrollment by mail in five working days.  Any questions call the FBMC at 1-800-342-8017.  The deadline to enroll is November 6th.
EdVest Wisconsin:  The EdVest Wisconsin program is now available as a UW System payroll deduction.  EdVest Wisconsin helps families prepare for college tuition expenses by offering the purchase of "tuition units" on behalf of a child beneficiary.  Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles may purchase the "tuition units".  To receive an information and/or an enrollment kit, call the EdVest toll-free number (1-888-338-3789) and ask the EdVest representative to include a University of Wisconsin employee payroll deduction form.  Information is available at the EdVest web site:  http://edvest.state.wi.us.
Any questions regarding any of the open enrollment opportunities for the above benefit plans should be directed to Sharon Morrison, 263-9078.

The General Internal Medicine (GIM) Research Committee has made great strides in fulfilling one of its missions:  the organization and implementation of a research facilitating project funneling patients from all GIM clinic sites into clinical trials of research colleagues in the Department of Medicine and other departments.  The goal of the project is to preserve the research mission of the medical school by improving visibility of ongoing research studies to a larger population of primary care patients in GIM clinics, increasing patient access and recruitment into these studies and  improving referrals and collegial interactions between GIM staff physicians and DOM researchers.
Dr. Mae Hla, Professor of Medicine with the strong support of her section head Dr. Mark Linzer, has been very involved in getting this project off the ground and to this end quite a few accomplishments have been made.  A Lead Nurse Liaison, Pat Jones, responsible for coordinating the advertising of research studies requesting to recruit subjects through GIM clinics, is now in place.  She is responsible for coordinating the efforts being made at designated clinics, GIMC, Eastside, University Physicians Middleton, Middleton Hills, and Women's Health Clinic.  There are designated nursing liaisons at these clinics who will be responsible for coordinating/facilitating recruitment efforts of the principal investigators in each research study.  All designated liaison nurses have up-to-date folders of all research protocols that are currently recruiting subjects from GIM clinics.  In addition, there are bulletin boards in the waiting areas and patient exam rooms of all clinics displaying ongoing or approved research studies requesting participation. When working closely with  the research personnel, the nursing liaisons can facilitate referrals by advising clinic personnel to flag the charts of potential research subjects to remind clinicians about certain ongoing protocols.
Principal Investigators interested in recruiting subjects from GIM clinics are invited to submit their approved research protocols to the GIM Research Committee which oversees the protocols to ensure that they are appropriate for GIM patients and to alert the GIM clinician about possible referrals of their patients when eligible.  These protocols and flyers are then given to the nursing liaisons at each site for filing in the protocol folders/manuals, and posting them on bulletin boards.  The research committee recommends that PIs with available funds incentivize GIM clinicians who are making an effort in their busy schedules to actively participate in recruiting patients by offering contributions based on number of patients referred.  The GIM faculty are also very interested in learning about outcomes of the studies in which their patients participated.  The committee has thus requested PIs/RAs to present a short synopsis of their studies at the beginning and invite them back to share their findings at the completion of the study.  The following is a list of ongoing studies involving GIMC patients:
1)  Outcomes in diabetes management in specialist vs. generalist care
      PIs:  Don Schalch and Clarisse Kappel (Endocrinology)
2)  Comparison study of safety and efficacy of Grepafloxacin and Clarithramycin in rx of community
      acquired pneumonia
      PI/RA:  Keith Meyer and Sue Stolz (Pulmonary)
3)  Comparison study of efficacy and safety of Grepafloxacin and Clarithramycin in acute bacterial
      exacerbations of chronic bronchitis
      PI/RA:  Keith Meyer and Sue Stolz (Pulmonary)
4)  Women's health and well-being study
      PI:  Diane Lauver, School of Nursing
5)  Cholesterol lowering and antioxidants in older patients
      PI:  Jim Stein (Cardiology)
6)  Stroke prevention study
    PI:  Robert Dempsey (Neurosurgery)
7)  Evaluation of new asthma treatment
    PI:  William Busse (Allergy)
8)  Smoking cessation
    PI:  Michael Fiore and Doug Jorenby (CTRI/GIM)
9)  Combination therapy using metformin and sulfonlyureas for new onset diabetes
    PI:  Melissa Meredith (Endocrinology)
10) The effect of treatment of sleep-disordered breathing on hypertension
    PIs:  Mae Hla and Jim Skatrud--This study just completed recruiting it's subjects, all of whom (N=35) were   
    GIM patients.
If you would like additional information about the research patient funneling project or would like to submit a protocol, please contact Denise Braun, GIM section secretary for the research committee at 263-6972, or Pat Jones at 265-8862 or by e-mail pm.jones@hosp.wisc.edu.  Dr. Hla and a designated committee member will expedite review of the protocol and Pat Jones will coordinate patient recruitment strategies.

Written by Lisa Brunette

Jon Kabat-Zinn, internationally renowned for his scientific work in mindfulness meditation into the mainstream of medicine and society, will speak in Madison Thursday, October 8.
The best-selling author and scientist will present "The Healing Power of Mindfulness:  Living Your Life as it Really Matters" from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Starlight Room of the Madison Civic Center.  The format includes both a talk by Kabat-Zinn and opportunities for exchange with the audience.
Kabat-Zinn's major research interests are in mind/body interactions for healing and in the clinical application of mindfulness meditation training for those with chronic pain and disorders related to stress.  His work is also relevant to developing solutions to both social and work stress.  Currently, he is studying the effects of the mind on healing, of mindfulness-based stress reduction on women with breast cancer, and on stress in corporate settings.
His work in stress reduction has been featured in Bill Moyers' PBS series "Healing and the Mind" and the book of the same name.  He has trained groups ranging from CEOs to Olympic athletes to Catholic priests in the principles of mindfulness.  More than 240 medical centers and clinics nationwide now use the mindfulness-based model of stress reduction.
Kabat-Zinn is offering the October 8 event as a benefit in support of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program offered by UW Health preventive cardiology.  Tickets for the Kabat-Zinn talk can be purchased through the Civic Center box office (608) 266-9055.  Tickets are $21 ($16 for those presenting a student ID).  Seating is limited.
Kabat-Zinn will also sign copies of his book Wherever You Go, There You Are Wednesday, Oct 7 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Borders Book Shop West, 3416 University Avenue.
For information about the mindfulness-based stress reduction program offered through UW Health preventive cardiology, call (608) 265-8325.  The next available class begins in late January.

Please welcome all the new members of the DOM!

• Jennifer Bellehumeur joined Rhematology on October 1st as a Clinical Nurse Specialist.  She will be working in the Ryan White HIV area.


• Janet Sailor joined the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute as an Associate Information Processing Consultant on October 1st.


• Yu-Rong Wang joined Hematology as a Research Specialist on September 21st.


• Bridget Whisler joined the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention as a PA-2.

Please remember to make your contribution to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and to the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center in order to participate in Lee National Denim Day on October 9.
Contributions can be made at Human Resources (A7/2 CSC).  Any questions, please contact Ann Johnson in the Cancer Center (263-1677).