Vital Signs

News Briefs

DHMC's Herb-an Setting

The perennial beds outside the DHMC cafeteria were filled with more than just colorful blossoms this summer. Sprawling amidst the flowers were sage, rosemary, basil, oregano, and two varieties of thyme. The idea for spicing up the flowerbeds with herbs came from a few employees who approached Paul Goundrey, the supervisor of grounds and vehicles at DHMC. Since "herbs are pretty low maintenance," says Goundrey, it didn't take much convincing for him to agree to mix in a few among the flowers. Although employees and visitors weren't supposed to pick the herbs, the greens were put to good use in the hospital cafeteria's kitchen. Goundrey expects some of the herbs to "make it through the winter," and, since they didn't add extra work for the grounds crew, his team will probably plant even more next year.

J.D.

BY DEGREES: Sometimes one advanced degree simply isn't enough. Now, students in any Dartmouth Ph.D. program-including the Medical School's science and policy doctoral programs-have an opportunity to obtain an accelerated M.B.A. from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

BUTT-ER FINGERS: DHMC has been totally tobacco-free since July 2008, but cigarette butts still show up on the grounds. So this July, in an effort to discourage smoking and littering, John. . . uh, Butt-erly, executive medical director, and other DHMC leaders picked up butts for two hours.

POWERFUL STATE-MENT: A record-breaking 2,984 bike-riders and 1,635 walkers from 35 states participated in the 2009 Prouty Bike Ride and Walk-bringing in donations from every single state and raising over $2 million for Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center.

Program is a Work of Art

It started simply: three youngsters drawing self-portraits and making masks at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, N.H., under the guidance of a few students from Dartmouth Medical School. "I remember how happy those three children were when they left, and I think that was what gave the program momentum," says Cindy Nu Chai, a DMS '10 and the founder of Dartmouth Arts for Kids. "We were able to slowly gain trust from the community and to show the community that this program was worthwhile. Now there are wait lists for the art sessions." Chai started the program under the auspices of an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. She's since recruited numerous fellow medical students who are willing to share their interest in art, plus some of their precious spare time, with chronically ill children. This fall, as it enters its third year, the program is flourishing. "We spend a lot of time reading about patients with different disorders," says Jennifer Shue, a DMS '11 and coleader of the program. "It's a reminder that they may have a diagnosis, but at the same time they're real people." "Here," points out AVA's Bente Torjusen, "the emphasis is on what they can do, not what they cannot do."

D.C.

ON THE JOB: Dr. Robert Drake, a DMS psychiatrist, says the U.S. could save $368 million a year by instituting a program to help mentally ill people who have Social Security disability coverage find and hold down jobs, using a supported-employment model pioneered at Dartmouth.

NEWS TO USE: Dartmouth research on health-care utilization, including from The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, was quoted during the first six months of 2009 in 200 unique media outlets which reached 117 million consumers of news.

BAGGING PAPER: Dartmouth Medical School was tapped by the Association of American Medical Colleges to take part in a pilot project to computerize the process by which medical students apply for electives at other schools-thus reducing paperwork.