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Vital Signs

News Briefs

RURAL DELIVERY: A study led by Dartmouth internist Dr. John Dick determined that the more experiences in rural settings that residents in internal medicine have during their training, the more likely they are to choose to practice primary care.

TOOTH PICK: Dr. Robert Keene—an adjunct member of the DMS anatomy faculty, as well as Dartmouth College's predental adviser—received the New Hampshire Dental Society's Dr. Eldon McRury Award, in recognition of his public service in dentistry.

Heavy Message, Light Touch

The graphics are fun, the colors are bright, and the program's name is lighthearted—but its aim is dead serious. "Kids Don't Float" is the name of a new program run by the Injury Prevention Center at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth.

With support from several local organizations, the center arranged for the installation of a life jacket loaner station at a popular boat launch on the Merrimack River in Concord, N.H. The hope is that the ready availability of life jackets may prevent a tragedy.

"Kids are top-heavy, and you can't leave them alone," warns James Esdon, manager of the Injury Prevention Center's Safe Kids New Hampshire program.

The Kids Don't Float program originated in Homer, Alaska. And it's not just drowning but hypothermia that parents need to be wary of when kids are near water—even in New Hampshire, says Esdon, where lakes and rivers can be cold in the spring and early summer.

M.C.W.

Game of life

Find out more about the game
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GAME THEORY: A Dartmouth faculty member has developed a board game—called "POX: Save the People"—aimed at improving the public's understanding about how infectious diseases are (and are not) spread. See the adjacent box for more.

HERE, TAKE THIS TABLET: Since September 2010, Dartmouth- Hitchcock Trustees have received their materials for board meetings on customized iPads. Despite the outlay for the tablets, DH will save over $4,000 a year on copying and postage.

CASE IN POINT: A team of Dartmouth students—three undergrads, an M.D. student, and an M.D.-M.B.A. student—finished in the top four in a global health case competition at Emory. The 20 teams had to develop recommendations for a fictional scenario involving refugees in Africa.

Write-ful Recognition

Two Dartmouth Medicine authors—one a doctor and one a patient—were recently honored with national writing prizes in the 2011 Association of American Medical Colleges Awards for Excellence Competition.

A feature in the Summer 2010 issue, "What Matters" by Dr. Meredith Sorensen, won the top national award, the Robert G. Fenley Award for Excellence. Sorensen, a 2006 graduate of DMS who is now a resident in general surgery at DHMC, wrote about lessons she'd learned during a four-week rotation in Tanzania. Her account was described by the judges as a "fantastic story . . . alternatively descriptive, compassionate, professional."

And a feature in the Winter 2009 issue—"The Longest Run" by John Stableford, a retired English teacher who lives in Strafford, Vt.—won honorable mention. Stableford wrote about his recovery at DHMC from a near-fatal bout with pneumonia and sepsis, offering insight into the physical and psychic ravages of severe illness. The judges called his saga "very affecting" and "a rare glimpse into the lonely, confusing, and scary world of a patient recovering consciousness."

A.S.

A plea for the Prouty

See Michael Smyth's request for support
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REEL-Y FUN: DH employee Michael Smyth made a video about his participation in the Prouty—a fund-raiser for Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center—that was hailed by a national PR firm, Ragan, as being "charming, funny" and "delightfully awkward."

TOP SPIN: The April "Top Doctors" issue of New Hampshire magazine named 49 Dartmouth-Hitchcock physicians in 36 different specialities to its annual list of leading physicians in the state. In addition, Dr. Kari Rosenkranz, a DH breast surgeon, was featured on the issue's cover.

GETTING A GREEN LIGHT: Some 3,215 light fixtures at DHMC's Lebanon campus are in the process of being updated so they're more energy-efficient. The project, which has a payback of less than two years, will save over 500,000 kilowatt hours a year.


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