Calendar

The 15th annual University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, Evolving Healthcare Environment: Navigation, Resources and Partnerships, began with a keynote address by Deborah Feldman, president and chief executive officer of Dayton Children's Hospital. Ms. Feldman, an extraordinary leader and health advocate in Dayton for more than 30 years, has led critical community initiatives to improve health equity and economic development.

Next, real-life scenarios, presented by patients and their care teams, and moderated by Sharon White, System Director of External Relations for Premier Health, illustrated the partnerships and resources modern healthcare systems rely on to achieve positive patient outcomes.

• Case 1 panel (Maternal Fetal Case Study Panel - Nixon's Story): Christopher Croom, MD, Medical Director, Perinatal Partners, Miami Valley Hospital; Sharon Orozco, MS, RNC-OB, C-EFM, IBCLC, Nurse Navigator, Fetal to Newborn Care Center; Emily Seagraves, RN, CNM, Clinical Nurse Manager in Labor and Delivery AND "Nixon's Mom"
• Case 2 panel (Trauma case): Melora Waltman, BSN, RN, Nurse Manager, Premier Health Burn Center and Enterostomal Therapy; Tracy Morgan, VP of Donor Services, Versiti Blood Center-Dayton; Kevin Pleiman, burn patient
• Case 3 panel (Cardiac case): Amer Sayed, MD; Ramesh Emani, MD

Finally, ideation breakout sessions provided attendees with an opportunity to explore successful strategies for navigating a health crisis. Breakout sessions were moderated by Dr. Melinda Ruff, Medical Director for the University of Dayton Health Center; Amanda McClure, Vice President, Emergency and Trauma Services, Premier Health; and Mary Garman, who brings many years of experience in the hospital and healthcare industry including 18+ years as hospital Chief Operating Officer.

The 14th annual symposium in 2024 focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare. Participants learned about AI's potential and challenges for healthcare, attended mini-sessions led by area researchers and professionals, engaged with an ethics panel and enjoyed appetizers, networking and a poster session at the end of the event.

Dr. Sameer Badlani, M Health Fairview Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology Services; Adjunct Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University delivered the keynote address, AI in Healthcare: Harvesting the Potential, Understanding the Challenges, and Overcoming the Hype.

The next session began with research and application briefs from Barath Narayanan, Ph.D., University of Dayton Research Institute, Research Scientist and Fadi M. Tayim, Ph.D., Director/Division Chief of the Brain Mapping Center at the Premier Health Clinical Neuroscience Institute. Followed by flash mini-sessions delivered at each eight-person table by area researchers and professionals noted at the end of this synopsis.

The last session was introduced and moderated by Paul Ford, Ph.D., NeuroEthics Program Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Bioethics. He posed questions to the panel: Tanvi Banerjee, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Wright State University, Roberto Colon, M.D., FACP, System Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Medical Affairs for Premier Health, Rizwan Pasha, M.D., CMIO Nuance Healthcare, part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and Socrates Tuch, J.D., Senior Legal Counsel, Privacy Officer, Ohio Department of Health.

Finally, after the awards were presented by Kathleen Scheltens, Ph.D. and Dr. Marc Belcastro, attendees enjoyed appetizers, networking and a poster session from University of Dayton pre-health seniors showcasing their capstone research projects.

Table Leaders During Flash Mini-Sessions

• Kelly Beigh, MS (Senior Software Engineer, University of Dayton Research Institute)
• Tanvi Banerjee, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, Wright State University)
• Jason Benning (Director, Brand Strategy and Creative Services, Premier Health)
• Mikki Clancy, MBA (Chief Digital Officer, Premier Health)
• Michael Fitzgerald (VP, Clinical Analytics - Rare Diseases, Healthcare Advisory Network, LLC)
• Paul Ford, Ph.D. (NeuroEthics Program Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Bioethics)
• Steve Gaeke (Director of Development, Riverain Technologies)
• Daniel Gaudin, M.D. (Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Miami Valley Hospital)
• Jason Knapp, M.A. (Chief Science Officer, Riverain Technologies)
• Chris LaPole, CISSP, CISM (Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, Premier Health)
• Barath Narayanan Ph.D. (Research Scientist, University of Dayton Research Institute)
• John Nichols (Grants and Contracts Coordinator, University of Dayton)
• Tom Ongwere, Ph.D., (Computer Science faculty member, University of Dayton)
• Wendy Parks, MBA (Marketing Director of Operations, Premier Health)
• Rizwan Pasha, M.D. (CMIO Nuance Healthcare, part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare)
• Amy Quinn MBA (Senior Product Manager/Digital Health and Strategy, Premier Health)
• Tim Reisman, Ph.D. (Engineering faculty member, University of Dayton)
• James Robinson Ph.D. (Communications faculty member, University of Dayton)
• Arunbabu Sankaranarayanan, M.D., MPH (Internal Medicine Hospitalist, Premier Health); with co-leaders: Senthil Mariappan, MBA; Karthick Sankaranarayanan, M.S.
• Fadi M. Tayim, Ph.D. (Director/Division Chief, Brain Mapping Center, Premier Health Clinical Neuroscience Institute)
• Michael Verdon, D.O. FACOS (Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer, Transcendent Care, Inc.)
• Amanda Via, M.S. (System Director of Access, Referral Management and Telehealth, Premier Health)
• Robert H. Wilson, Ph.D. (Physics faculty member, University of Dayton)
• Steve Worrell, M.A. (Chief Executive Officer, Riverain Technologies)
• David J. Wright, Ph.D. (Director of Academic Technology and Curriculum Innovation, University of Dayton)
• Hamed Zolbanin, Ph.D. (Management Information Systems faculty, University of Dayton)

Building Our Community: Partnering for Wellbeing, the 13th annual symposium, was held April 1, 2023, on the University of Dayton campus. The theme included professional advocacy as a tool for addressing workplace stressors and built upon the discussion of wellbeing at the previous year's event. Additionally, participants learned about community resources that offer support for healthcare professionals and the patients that they serve.

Dr. Lakshman Swamy, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance, Medical Director for Payment Care Delivery Innovation for Massachusetts Medicaid, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Assistant Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at University of Massachusetts, opened the symposium with his keynote address, Combating Burnout: The Workplace, the System, and You. He discussed drivers of burnout in the workplace and interventions at both personal and systems levels.

Next, two breakout forums focused on advocacy. In one session, Vicki Giambrone, FACHE, MPA, a partner in CBD Advisors, and David Salisbury, healthcare policy practice lead at Sean P. Dunn and Associates, presented Advocacy in Healthcare. They discussed the role and value of advocacy in healthcare, dispelled concerns about participating in advocacy activities and provided a practical approach to building skills and becoming an effective advocate. In the other session, Advocacy for Students, four recent graduates from health professional schools responded to undergraduate questions related to challenges they faced and the strategies they used to navigate graduate programs. The panel consisted of: Nate Bloss, MSEd, LPC; Kyle Henneke, 5th-year MD/MPH dual-degree student at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine; Austin Parrish, MS PAP, PA-C; and Haley Stewart, MS Dietetics, RD.

During the final breakout forums, in one session, Supporting a Diverse Community, with Matthew Bauer, DO, Southwest Ohio Medical Director for Equitas Health; Jean de Dieu Mukunzi, MPH, PMP, founder and executive director of Ebenezer Healthcare Access; and Paula Thompson, MS HCA, President and CEO of Fidelity Health Care, Home and Community Based Division of Premier Health, explored strategies for success and the complexities of delivering healthcare to underserved, immigrant and marginalized communities. The other session, Supporting Dimensions of Wellbeing, highlighted community resources and initiatives that support health and wellbeing, focusing on underserved groups. The panel consisted of: Tristyn Ball, MPA, Director of the Division of Prevention and Early Intervention Services at Montgomery County ADAHMS Board; Meredith Montgomery, EdD, LPCC-S, clinical counselor, Assistant Professor and Clinical Experience Coordinator for the University of Dayton Clinical Mental Health Counseling graduate program, and Program Director for UD's Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program; and Amanda Vande Griend, MS Foods and Nutrition.

The symposium closed with the opportunity to engage with local community health resource provider tables and interact with UD prehealth seniors about their capstone research project findings.

Wellbeing in the Wake of a Pandemic, the 12th annual symposium, was held virtually on April 9, 2022. This year's theme was planned in response to the incredible stress that the pandemic has driven for healthcare workers. The goal was to provide an opportunity to acknowledge and contextualize the challenges of the past two years and to highlight strategies to reduce burnout and promote wellbeing.

Dr. Lisa Rotenstein, Associate Medical Director of Population Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, opened the symposium with her keynote address, Wellbeing in the Healthcare Workforce: Progress Made and the Road Ahead. She provided an overview of the issues and trends in wellbeing for healthcare professionals, including how gender, racial and ethnic dimensions impact wellbeing. Additionally, Dr. Rotenstein discussed organizational and systems-level approaches to enhancing wellbeing in healthcare professionals.

We next heard from three speakers in our Local Voices session. First, Dr. Christina Waite, Medical Director Psychiatry for Inpatient Psychiatric Unit and Consultation Liaison Services, Premier Health, provided a local perspective of the impact of the pandemic on healthcare professionals in her presentation Stress, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout During the Pandemic. Brian LaDuca, Executive Director of the Institute of Applied Creativity for Transformation at the University of Dayton, gave a session titled We Have Entered the Era of Resiliency...But How?. Finally, Dr. Jennifer Dalton, Director of Dietetics and Nutrition and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Health and Sport Science at the University of Dayton, presented Finding Meaning and Purpose Through Difficult Times.

The final session of the symposium was a panel discussion featuring three leaders in the Dayton community. Lessons from Law Enforcement: Wellbeing in a Challenging Profession brought together Chiefs Richard Biehl, Savalas Kidd, and David Wolford to discuss stress and strategies to promote wellbeing in law enforcement officers and first responders. Richard Biehl served as Chief of Police for Dayton Police Department for 13 years before retiring in 2021. Savalas Kidd is Assistant Vice President of Public Safety and Chief of Police at the University of Dayton. David Wolford is System Chief of Police and Security at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio.

The 11th annual symposium, Breaking Down Racism to Build Cultural Intelligence and Understand Health Disparities, was held virtually on April 17, 2021. This year we reflected on lessons extracted from the difficult year of 2020. What can we learn from both the #BLM movement and our response to the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of health equity? How do we develop skills and competencies to serve patients as antiracist providers? These were some of the questions addressed in the 2021 symposium.

The symposium began with COVID-Talks: Fostering Health Equity in Our Local Crisis Response, a panel discussion including Dr. Gary LeRoy, Fabrice Juin, and Paula Thompson. This conversational presentation included local data related to the pandemic and initiatives to combat racial disparities in the Dayton area and Montgomery County, as well as a discussion of the major take-aways that Covid has revealed and what individual community members can do to help with our community response.

Following the panel discussion, Robin Shabazz, Esq. facilitated a workshop, Culturally Intelligent Solutions for Becoming an Antiracist. This workshop addressed how healthcare professionals can take intentional actions to combat racism in healthcare. Robin Shabazz is a diversity, equity and inclusion expert who founded the Eastledge Group, LLC consulting firm in 2018 in order to assist organizations in building culturally intelligent teams. Through engagement in activities and discussions, workshop participants developed skills to practice antiracist behaviors.

The 2020 symposium, Innovations in Health Engagement, was cancelled due to the pandemic.

In 2019, we celebrated our 10th annual symposium by focusing on "integrative approaches to health and healing." Dr. Wayne Jonas discussed his book titled, How Healing Works: Get Well and Stay Well Using Your Hidden Power to Heal. Dr. Michael Fine presented a session titled "How to build a healthcare system 101" and Dr. Joseph Scherger discussed approaches to reversing chronic disease through nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

Two local Spotlight presentations highlighted innovative approaches to health and healing. First, Dr. Karen Wonders, Founder and Director of the Maple Tree Cancer Alliance, presented on their work to improve the quality of life of cancer patients through programs fostering physical, mental and emotional health and wellness. Second, Dr. Jennifer Dalton and Dr. Josie Elrod talked about their work to create the Culinary Medicine Collaborative, which brings together primary care residents from Grandview Hospital and undergraduate dietetic students from the University of Dayton to learn about healthy food choices and the impact this will have on their future patients. Culinary medicine uses food in addition to traditional medicine to treat and prevent disease.

The ninth annual University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, Re-Think Addiction, featured presentations on innovative approaches to understanding and treatment of addiction as a chronic disease. Following opening remarks by Dr. Joseph Scherger, Dr. Nicole Labor spoke about the neuroscience of addiction. Dr. Michael Dohn and Ms. Haley Riegel, MPH from Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County then spoke about perspectives on addiction. This presentation was followed by Dr. Scherger’s discussion of addiction from the perspective of a primary care provider.

After the different perspectives of addiction were introduced, a providers’ panel featuring panelists from Premier Health (Dr. Jennifer Hauler), the Kettering Health Network (Dr. Nancy Pook), Dayton’s Children's Hospital (Dr. Tahira Adelekan) and the Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center (Dr. Randall James) spoke about their health systems' programs for treating addiction.

The symposium wrapped up with presentations featuring innovative practices in dealing with addiction. Presenters included Caleb Tang (Cedarville University PharmD student) discussing effective disposal of excess prescription opioids, Kelly Cashion (UDRI researcher) discussing research into biofeedback mechanisms to treat addiction, and Vernique Coleman-Stokes (UD CADRE) presenting on promoting a recovery friendly language and culture.

The symposium also included an optional Naloxone training and distribution hosted by Project DAWN (Death Avoided by Naloxone), a community-based overdose education and naloxone distribution program. Project DAWN is sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health. Because Naloxone is a medication that can reverse an opioid drug overdose, communities are arming citizens with Naloxone kits in an effort to provide an accessible way to save lives. Program participants, which included healthcare professionals, UD students and Dayton community members received training in recognizing the signs of an overdose, contacting emergency personnel and administering life-saving narcan.

The 2018 student symposium sessions provided University of Dayton students opportunities to attend health professional student and career discussion panels and a professional development workshop on interviewing skills.

The eighth annual University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, Building a Healthy Dayton: Next Steps, continued to focus and expand on the themes explored in the 2017 symposium in order to improve the health of communities. The keynote speaker was Nick Buettner, Community and Corporate Program Director for the Blue Zones Project. His talk, "The Blue Zones Project: Building Healthier Communities," focused on common factors identified in communities or "Blue Zones" throughout the world where people routinely live longer, healthier and happier lives. Following the keynote address, current Dayton and Montgomery County Health Commissioner, Jeff Cooper, MS, presented an overview of the public health assessment for the Dayton region.

Additional presentations highlighted programs and initiatives in the Dayton area that are working to improve the health and wellness of local communities. The other presenters featured were: Jessica Saunders, MPA; Dr. Joseph Scherger; Dr. Sara Paton; Terra Williams, MPH; Dr. Marietta Orlowski; Jodi Long, LISE-S, LICDC-CS; Dr. Katherine Cauley. The symposium also featured a poster session were University of Dayton premedical and predental undergraduate students presented on a range of biomedical/healthcare topics. The afternoon student symposium featured discussion panels on the following topics: life in dental school, life in medical school, the gap year experience, advanced care practitioners, careers in public health, medical specialties.

The seventh annual University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, Building a Healthy Dayton One Connection at a Time, focused on ways to expand our vision of healthcare to better meet the physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and families in order to build healthy communities. The keynote speaker was Dr. Rishi Manchanda whose presentation was titled "the upstream effect — what makes us get sick?" In his 2013 TEDbook, The Upstream Doctors, Dr. Manchanda introduced a new model of the healthcare workforce that includes "upstreamists" who improve social determinants of health. Other presenters featured were: Jessica Saunders, MPA; Joseph Scherger, MD, MPH; Jim Gross, MPH; Jeffrey Lycan, RN, BS, MS; and Theresa Thompson, Ph.D. The symposium also featured a poster session where students presented on a variety of healthcare/research topics and an afternoon student symposium on the following topics:

• Doctors, PAs and NPs Working Together
• Global Medicine
• Life in Dental School
• Gap Year Experiences
• Practicing Medicine in Specialty Fields
• Life in Medical School
• Medical school and the application process
• Pediatric residents panel

The sixth annual University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, The Best Care Possible: Improving the Patient Experience through a Community Approach to Advance Care Planning, highlighted the need for a more person-centered, family-oriented care model, which focuses on patient-physician communication and advance care planning. University of Dayton alumnus Dr. Joseph Scherger, Vice President for Primary Care and Marie E. Pinizzotto, MD, Chair of Academic Affairs at Eisenhower Medicine Center in Rancho Mirage, California, served as host for the program.

Speakers included Dr. Bernard Hammes, director of medical humanities and Respecting Choices for Gundersen Health System, and Karen Peterson, director of program operations for Honoring Choices Minnesota, both of whom spoke about their organizations' efforts to coordinate community-wide advance care planning initiatives. They were followed by a panel of local community leaders, including Sen. Peggy Lehner, speaking about related legislation in Ohio.

The focus of the fifth annual University of Dayton/Miami Valley Hospital Healthcare Symposium, Innovations in Healthcare Delivery, highlighted several organizations and individuals who are making great strides in changing the ways healthcare is delivered so as to improve outcomes and lower costs. Dr. Marjorie Bowman, Dean of Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, returned as our moderator.

The symposium featured T. R. Reid, foreign correspondent, who discussed "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare." Additional speakers were David Moen, MD, and Ken Coburn, MD, MPH.

The fourth annual symposium, held March 23, 2013, featured a panel of local healthcare specialists discussing various controversies in preventive medicine. Dr. Marjorie Bowman, Dean of Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine moderated a series of presentations focusing on areas such as breast cancer and prostate cancer screenings, coronary artery disease screenings, immunizations and the role of genetic testing in preventive medicine.

Presenters include Sherman Alter; M.D., Mukul Chandra; M.D., Margaret Dunn, M.D., MBA; Marvin Miller, M.D.; Joseph Scherger, M.D., MPH.

At the third annual symposium in 2012, the timely topic of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) was again explored through presentations related to the national, state and local perspectives on PCHM. A second track was titled "Meaning in Medicine: Exploring connections between medicine and spirituality."

The keynote speaker this year was Dr. Harold Koenig, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University. Dr. Koenig’s address was titled "Religion, Spirituality and Medicine: Research and Clinical Applications."

The second annual symposium in 2011 provided two tracks of break-out sessions. One track was titled "Incorporating global health into your career" and the second track focused on the Patient Centered Medical Home. The keynote speaker was author Tracy Kidder who spoke of global health initiatives explored in his book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

The inaugural symposium in 2010 featured Dr. Scott Morris, Director of Church Health Center, who gave the keynote address The Future of Healthcare for the Poor in America. Church Health Center, in Memphis, TN is the nation's largest healthcare clinic for uninsured individuals.

In addition to the keynote address, panels of local physicians spoke of their agencies' efforts to provide services to local underserved populations.