Pulse on Health by Jeff Hansel

Biotech project manager civil penalty...

I promised earlier today that I would provide a copy of the "consent order" that was filed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce in relation to Geoff Griffin, contract project manager for the planned Elk Run biobusiness park in Pine Island, Minnesota for California-based developer Tower Investments, Inc.

Here's the file:

Download Griffin order

That way, you can read it and come to your own conclusions.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has let contracts to begin construction of a new interchange at County Road 12 on U.S. 52 to serve the biobusiness park and Tower officials have said they will begin construction of the first biotech building no later than September 2, 2010.

It has become clear that construction will not begin unless companies have been found for the building, due to the current economic climate. So if construction begins, you can expect that Tower is certain of a near-100 percent occupancy.  Stay tuned....

So far, I'm aware of three companies that want to have a presence at Elk Run:

• Exsulin (if its Phase 2 clinical trial results come out well later this year). It will produce a drug to trigger the bodies of long-term Type 1 diabetics to regenerate and protect insulin-producing cells. The clinical trial is underway at Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, Minnesota.

* Another company co-owned with Exsulin called Kinexum that helps biotech start-up companies get up and running.

• A third, unrelated company, that is interested in a second manufacturing site, but not for a couple of years yet.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Elk Run project manager levied civil penalty...

The project manager for the planned Elk Run biobusiness park in Pine Island, Minnesota has been levied a civil penalty because he directly accepted a commission for land sold to developer Tower Investments, Inc. of California by local landowners in Pine Island, Minnesota.

Later today I will post the "consent order" from the Department of Commerce. Also, watch today's print edition for more details. 

The Department of Commerce says that Griffin was in violation of two statutes because he accepted a commission check directly, and because he did not renew his real estate license more than a year ago.

He has since done obtained his real estate brokers license.

I should note that Griffin has previously said that he mistakenly believed his office manager had filed the paperwork for his brokers license.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Olmsted Medical Center blockade...

If you're an Olmsted Medical Center patient, get ready for a major change.

On Monday (August 2, 2010), OMC's 9th Street clinic will permanently close its old and long-used 9th Street entrance.

You'll no longer be able to enter or exit from that street.

Instead, the clinic's brand-new parking lot awaits on the west side. You can get there from either 1st Avenue S.E. or from 9 1/2 Street S.E., says spokesman Jeremy Salucka. If you're an employee, your new parking spot will be in the east lot, where patients used to park (on a first-come, first serve basis with overflow parking in the K-Mart parking lot). Employees will also be asked to enter only through the south employee entrance.

That's because the new west patient entrance is for patients only.

Patients will park in the west and southwest lots. 

 

[Olmsted Medical Center's new main entrance on the west side of the 9th Street clinic building has been surrounded by a brand-new blacktop parking lot since this photo was taken earlier this month. Please click to enlarge. Copyright.] 

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Mayo Clinic diabetes research windfall...

Mayo Clinic researchers will get $1.5 million for diabetes research, according to the office of Sen. Al Franken. 

"We must confront the epidemic of diabetes facing our state and our country. This funding will help ensure that the Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic has the resources it needs to maintain its role as a leader in the research and prevention of this disease," Franken was quoted by his office as saying. 

The total dollar amount in exact numbers is $1,483,508, a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "for diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolic research."

According to Franken's announcement, "Sen. Al Franken and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) authored the National Diabetes Prevention Act, a provision included in this year’s comprehensive health care reform law.  The act is based on the Minnesota Department of Health’s diabetes prevention program and targets pre-diabetics, especially children and young adults, with community-based intervention programs."

Diabetes, according to the National Institutes of Health (which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services) is when "the immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The pancreas then produces little or no insulin. A person who has type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily to live."

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Rochester, Minnesota oil spill...

Mayo Clinic molecular biologist Stephen Ekker can barely contain his excitement about an oil spill he and his research team have created in the classrooms of the Rochester, Minnesota public school system.

Teachers working with Ekker and his team have created a learning module that includes descriptions of the components of an oil well, geography, ethics and environmental impacts of an oil spill. 

And they can put the oil-spill model (yes, it's a model, not the real thing) to real-world use with zebrafish, the kind of test model used in Ekker's laboratory at Mayo.

Ekker says this educational model based upon the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is ready to go and should be picked up by school systems nationwide — now. 

"Let's learn from it. Let's make this the 'generational moment' for science education," Ekker said this morning. The most-important need, he said, will be for people to donate their time. 

Ekker's team (collaborating with parents and teachers from a variety of grade levels and subject instruction who undertook high-tech training in Mayo laboratories) says it has demonstrated improvement in science scores at Lincoln Elementary School in Rochester directly related to the zebrafish experiments. 

Teachers created lesson modules while studying under the tutelage of Mayo researchers. They then took those lesson plans back to the school system and taught students, with all teachers at Lincoln aware of — and supplementing — the work with zebrafish, from math to reading to science.

Kids in the classroom talk about things like genetic inheritance, biomarkers and fish anatomy enough that those terms eventually become old hat. And, while working with their zebrafish research, the students use math to gather and analyze data. Thus, not only did science scores go up dramatically at Lincoln (which was the main goal) but math scores also improved.

Now, Franklin teachers have created an oil spill module for use this school year. 

Can you bring math scores up to expected levels?

"The answer's yes — and it can be done in a year if you educate the teachers and then they spend the time with the students," Ekker said.

Can you raise a minority group's achievement level from 14 percent performing at expected levels to half performing at expected levels in that same timeframe?

"The answer's yes," Ekker said.

"The 52 percent exceeds expectation in science at Lincoln School is No. 2 in the state," Ekker said. "There is no school in the state that exceeds 50 percent in 'exceeds expectations' in the state — except Lincoln."

That's after just one year of program implementation, Ekker said. The program is being expanded this year to more schools, including Franklin, Kellogg and the Alternative Learning Center.

At "Over 90 percent of the boys are proficient (in science) and we're at 70 percent for girls," Ekker said. "If we can cut that by half, Lincoln will be No. 1 in the state at all levels."

Ekker notes that "everyone told us this couldn't be done." But it has been done. Now, Ekker says, his team wants to show it can be done on a wider scale, perhaps eventually statewide and then nationally.

"We are the best country in the world for science and engineering. Let's transmit that back to a new generation," he said. By the way, the data the kids collect is actually used for real-world analysis by Ekker's lab. The zebrafish they study are considered close genetically to humans, so you can test a theory about the genetic effect of, say, oil.

It will be interesting to see how far Ekker and his team's work travels. Can he convince school systems statewide and even nationally to take up the banner of real-world science in which vocabulary instruction includes words of science, math instruction includes formulas needed for laboratory analysis and science instruction includes messenger RNA?

Watch the Post-Bulletin editorial page this week for more about Ekker's work.

Want more information about the work by Ekker and his team so you can come to your own conclusions? Click on "download insiedout2010 below: 

Download Insciedout2010 notes

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Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

The Rochester Rock & Stroll ...

If you're looking for a fun event for the family, you might want to go to this one.

It's called the "Rochester Rock & Stroll."

Events to help raise funds for the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota include:

• Carnival for kids, raffle prizes and "bouncing fun!"

• Live music by J-Sun Entertainment and Sentinel Events.

• Food catered by the Eagles Club.

• Keto-friendly snow cones (for children who follow high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets to treat epilepsy).

• "If you don’t want to walk, bring lawn chairs and be a cheerleader at the sidelines."

• Sponsor a team at www.firstgiving.com/efm — "many inspirational stories to choose from!"

If you're affected by epilepsy, serve in a neurology department or work in the school system or at a job where students or coworkers are affected by epilepsy, the event coming up soon might be a good one for you to attend.

Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010

Time: Registration starts at 5:15 p.m., stroll begins at 6:30 p.m., events throughout the night

Location: Eagles Club, 917 15th Ave. S.E., Rochester, Minnesota

To register for the walk: Call 1-800-779-0777 or go to www.efmn.org and click on "Stroll for Epilepsy."

The Epilepsy Foundation says 1 out of every 10 adults will have a seizure at some point in life.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Fenced wild horses for Elk Run...update

***Update: Thanks to Bob Ingrassia for a link to the updated Web site for Finance & Commerce, where you can still find the Finance & Commerce article mentioned in this post.***

Earlier this year I spoke with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program (who knew such a thing even existed?). 

The upshot of the conversations was that the bureau could neither confirm nor deny that an application had been sent for adoption of wild horses that would eventually be released on land associated with the Elk Run biotechnology park in Pine Island, Minnesota.

But Finance & Commerce reporter Arundhati Parmar has produced a fascinating piece about the plans. I note that her article is not posted on the Finance & Commerce Web site currently, but it's common for online articles to only be available for short time periods as media companies restrict access.

In her piece Parmar quotes a New Haven Township supervisor as saying that he can not comment, except to say that an application for the horses has been made out.

Parmar says developer Tower Investments contract project manager Geoff Griffin; a married couple who sold land to Tower and the township supervisor will care for the horses. 

That's especially interesting, because Griffin has ties to Elk Run that go all the way back to the days when John and Agnes Hoehne originally owned the elk farm that is now part of the Elk Run tract. 

[The site of the planned Elk Run biobusiness park. Please click to enlarge. Copyright.] 

Griffin has publicly admitted what he says was accidental acceptance of a land-sale commission check that should have instead been routed through his company because he was not a licensed real estate broker. The Minnesota Department of Commerce told me recently that it (like the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horses and Burros Program) can neither confirm nor deny whether there's a current, ongoing investigation about someone who was not a real estate agent accepting such a check.

But Tower Investments has said that Griffin is working with the Department of Commerce to take care of the matter. I asked the department whether any other investigations involving Griffin had occurred (because it matters whether this was a one-time thing that was simply an oversight or a pattern of repeated events).  I was told that the department can only discuss investigations that have been resolved.

So then I asked whether any previous investigations involving Griffin have occurred and been resolved. None have, I was told.

There's one more interesting aspect to the wild horses issue. Imagine wild horses --- fenced in.  At least that's the picture that comes to my mind.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Have you been sexually assaulted...?

If you have been sexually assaulted, you are not alone.

Actually, it's shocking (or should be) how many people have been sexually assaulted, both men and women. For women, sexual assault is pervasive. 

The Post-Bulletin published an article Monday (may require subscriber user name and password) about the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program at the Mayo Clinic Saint Marys Hospital emergency department.

"We want to make sure that people realize that there is such a program in Rochester, because we realize that sexual assaults do occur, and I'm not sure that people realize that there is a group of nurses that care for patients in this type of situation," said Janet Finley, a clinical nurse specialist and coordinator of the Mayo SANE program.

Another one of the sources for the article, registered nurse Cheryl Darsow, sent us some statistics about sexual assault. They highlight the need perhaps for people to talk more about sexual assault, a conversation that many avoid. If you've got eight women in your immediate circle of friends or family, it's likely two of them have been or will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes (one in four). It's also important to note that if you have six men in your immediate circle of friends or family, it's statistically likely that one of them has been or will be sexually assaulted. 

What is sexual assault?

"We define sexual assault as any sexual contact for which an individual does not give consent," Finley said. The National Women's Health Information Center says sexual assault "can be verbal, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention."

At Saint Marys, all you need to do is tell the intake nurse that you've been assaulted (you don't have to say what type of assault) and you'll be offered a private area to get treatment of wounds and emotional impact.

[Saint Marys Hospital. Please click to enlarge. Copyright.] 

The nurses recommend that you not eat, shower or use the bathroom until you go to the hospital. That allows evidence to be collected. You don't have to report to police, but the evidence can be kept so you can make that decision later.

A SANE team member will be immediately released from other duties and assigned to your care. Supportive, compassionate care is available 24 hours a day.

Many others have experienced sexual assault. Here are some additional details from Darsow:

• An American is sexually assaulted every two minutes. (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, RAINN website)

• 6,501 sexual assaults were reported to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in 2001. (MNBCA, 2002)

• 1 in 4 girls is sexually assaulted before the age of 18. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1999)

• 1 in 6 boys will have been sexually abused by age 18. (Terryann Nielson, 1983, National Council for Prevention of Child Abuse, 1979)

• There were 1.1 rapes or sexual assaults among persons 12 or older per 1,000 people in 2001. In 66 percent of these victimizations, the offender was an intimate, another relative, a friend or an acquaintance of the victim. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002)

• The average age of entry into prostitution is 14 years old. (Family and Children's Service, PRIDE)

• Five percent of all middle school and 8 percent of all high schools reported at least one crime of rape or sexual battery to law enforcement in the 1996-1997 school year. (Bureau of Justice Statistics. November 2002.)

• Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police. Only 12% are reported within the first 24 hours. (Rape in America: A Report to the Nation, National Center for Victims of Crime, 1992)

• A recently published eight-year study indicates that when perpetrators of rape are current of former husbands or boyfriends, the crimes go unreported to the police 77 percent of the time. When the perpetrators are friends or acquaintances, the rapes go unreported 61 percent of the time; and when the perpetrators are strangers, the rapes go unreported 54 percent of the time. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002)

• 84% of sexual assault victims know the offender. (National Victim Center, 1992. US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1991)

• Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs were first established in the 1970s. There are now more than 300 SANE programs nationwide (Journal of Emergency Nursing).

National Sexual Assault Hotline:

1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

A day trip between medical appointments...

So you're going to be in Rochester, Minnesota for medical treatment at Mayo Clinic or Olmsted Medical Center.

What is there to do during that completely open day between medical appointments? Well, first of all, don't forget to consider asking about taking any appointment slots that open up due to cancellations. But if that's not an option, or if you just need a day away from lab coats and stethoscopes, there's plenty to do right here in Rochester.

But if you're really wanting to get away from the health-care system, consider a day trip to the Mall of America in Bloomington, which Mapquest suggests is about 83 miles from Rochester, not bad for a day trip.

The mall is monstrous, so come prepared if you struggle with mobility. 

Eventually, you should be able to check in with Mayo Clinic health providers right at the mall, although details of the Mayo Clinic Gateway at Mall of America remain sketchy. Clinic officials first announced there was a plan to have a presence at the mall, then they used the word "facility" and, most recently, they've said Mayo will construct a "building." Mayo's favorite spot at the mall has been the Sears courtyard. 

If you head up to the mall, check it out because Mayo has been offering services like healthy cooking classes and skin checks.  

If you've got kids along, be sure to visit the aquarium. It's a little pricey (for me at least) but it's pretty cool to see stingrays close up and watch as sharks glide over you through the giant wall-to-wall-over-ceiling aquarium.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel

Mayo Clinic's Medical Sciences Building jobs...

Mayo Clinic's nondescript Medical Sciences Building might seem a throwback to days gone by. But it continues to serve the clinic's research needs and it has a rich history. 

According to Mayo.edu, the Medical Sciences Building was the location for installation of the first Dynamic Spacial Reconstructor (DSR), "a conceptually advanced, experimental X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging machine."

"The final version of the DSR was installed in the Medical Sciences Building on the Mayo Clinic Rochester campus in 1978.  This machine produced raw image data at 200 million 8-bit picture elements (pixels) per second," the Web site says. 

According to Mayo public relations staffer Makala Johnson, 214 people work in the Medical Sciences Building, 321 3rd Ave. S.W. in Rochester, Minnesota. If part-time jobs are combined, the equivalent of 207 full-time jobs (FTEs) are housed in the facility as of June, 2010.

[Medical Sciences Building at Mayo Clinic. Please click to enlarge. Copyright.] 

The Proteomic Sciences Center was opened in the Medical Sciences Building in 2002, which "positioned as a leader among research institutions poised to unravel the complex narrative that proteins have to tell," says the clinic's publication "Discovery's Edge." 

"The study of the array of proteins expressed by a given cell or tissue at a specific time is called proteomics," Discovery's Edge says. The publication notes that "tissues such as bone, blood, muscle, brain and skin are composed of thousands of different proteins. Their behaviors, interactions and communications are all mediated by proteins. In this sense, proteins are the fundamental actors in life processes."

The Mayo Aeromedical Unit was also once housed in the Medical Sciences Building — a highly secret effort to overcome problems with low oxygen experienced by World War II pilots. 

A "gigantic human centrifuge" was built (watch historical video here). I met Dr. Earl Wood, credited as the G-suit inventor, shortly before his death. He still had a ball bearing from the centrifuge. 

The Medical Sciences Building remains a secure building, even to this day. But the centrifuge was dismantled in 1978 according to MayoClinic.org.

[Medical Sciences Building, main entrance. Please click to enlarge. Copyright.] 

 

Pulse on Health
 

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904 

Twitter Hansel's Pulse: @Jeff Hansel