The SIU Board of Trustees has voted to appoint Jerry Kruse, MD, MSPH, as Dean and Provost for Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The appointment is effective January 1 and is pending a final contract. Kruse, a professor of family medicine, has been Executive Associate Dean of SIU School of Medicine and Chief Executive Officer of SIU HealthCare since 2013. He first joined the school in 1984. “Dr. Kruse’s knowledge of the medical school, his leadership experience and his commitment to serving the region position him to continue the School of Medicine’s positive trajectory,” said

Twenty faculty physicians at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine are included in Best Doctors® in America 2015 database. Best Doctors includes more than 45,000 U.S. physicians, chosen by peer review and representing the top five percent of physicians in more than 40 medical specialties. The SIU physicians, all members of SIU HealthCare or SIU Center for Family Medicine, are: Beau J. Batton, MD, associate professor and division chief of pediatric neonatology; Carol Bauer, MD, professor and division chair of otolaryngology; Lucinda S. Buescher, MD, professor, division chief of

Coordination to improve quality, lower costs Patients with complex brain and spine disorders may benefit from a new, multispecialty clinic at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. The Neuroscience Institute (NSI) will consolidate SIU’s departments of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry into a single-site outpatient clinical care center staffed by more than 50 neuroscience providers. The institute will care for patients with a range of disorders including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, spine disease

High school students interested in careers in medicine are invited to join Medical Explorers Post 998, sponsored by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Abraham Lincoln Council of the Boy Scouts of America. An informational kick-off meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the West Auditorium of 801 N. Rutledge St. in Springfield. Medical Explorers is open to all local high school students between the ages of 14 and 20. SIU faculty, staff and students will guide teens through a wide range of medical situations, share firsthand experiences and offer advice to

Springfield area high school freshmen interested becoming doctors are invited to take their career explorations one step further. Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Springfield Public Schools (SPS) will host a Physician Preparatory Pipeline Program (P4) informational meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16 for students and parents. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. in the South Auditorium of the medical school's main instructional facility, 801 N. Rutledge St., in Springfield. P4 is a partnership between the medical school and SPS that is designed for freshman high school students

Central Illinois patients with difficult to control high blood pressure may benefit from a new hypertension clinic at SIU Medicine, 751 N. Rutledge, Springfield. Patients who must take multiple medications, find it difficult to control their high blood pressure or are concerned they may have a secondary cause for their hypertension are urged to contact the new clinic, which will take appointments on Wednesday and Thursdays. The clinic will provide comprehensive hypertension services, including 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring studies, non-invasive measures of heart and vascular

Aug. 26, 2015 - Southern Illinois University School of Medicine researcher Kathleen Campbell, PhD, professor in the Department of Surgery, has secured a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance her decades of research in hearing loss prevention and treatment. The total budget for the project is $2.8 million. This grant will determine the optimal dosing level of D-methionine (D-met), a compound that has been shown to prevent hearing loss. D-met is an amino acid that has been found to protect against noise-induced hearing loss and ototoxicity, or damage to the ear

Annual Birthday Celebration Set for September 13 Lexi Kotner is only 5, but she’s already an avid ice skater, gymnast and dancer. Kody Kotner, like his big sister, is active, joining his first soccer league at age 3. But seven years ago, their mom Jeannie underwent six failed inseminations and two failed in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles and believed she might never become a parent. “We were very frustrated and losing hope,” Jeannie said. In 2009, the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Fertility and IVF Center helped Jeannie’s “stars align,” as she puts it. She and her husband

The Sangamon County Medical Society will release the eighth video in a series that highlights the innovation and research achievements within the local medical community on August 24th. Each video profiles a 2013 Medical Innovators Award recipient. The video features Dr. Stephen Hazelrigg, professor and director of cardiothoracic surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Dr. Hazelrigg was named a Medical Innovator for the second time (the first was in 2006) for his 20-year evolution of treatment for end-stage obstructive lung disease such as emphysema or COPD. The 5-minute

“The Spectrum of Cancer Care for Primary Providers,” is the topic of the 14th Annual Simmons Cancer Institute Symposium, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, September 3 at Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation, 228 W. Miller Street, Springfield. The conference for physicians and health care professionals interested in the care of cancer patients is sponsored by Simmons Cancer Institute at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and Memorial Medical Center. Sessions begin at 9 a.m. with “Integrating Primary Care in Cancer Survivorship.” The remaining morning