Cezanne Manor hails from Squaw Valley and is on her way to becoming a successful doctor.

At 15 years old, Manor began taking pre-med classes at Reedley College. Ten years later, she has graduated from medical school and is now preparing to enter a residency program in Arizona this June.

I knew I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was about 12 and my plan was to get started as early as possible, Manor said.

Manor entered Reedley High as a freshman in 2001, and before the start of her sophomore year, she had already taken and passed the California High School Proficiency Exam. Other than the golf team and Mrs. Merciers science class, Manor said most of the high school classes bored her and she was ready to accept a more difficult challenge. By the summer of 2002, Manor had enrolled in medical classes at Reedley College.

Since medical school is expensive, Manor has supplemented her income by working as a waitress at the Outback Steakhouse in New York City where she currently resides.

Manor is one of eight children born to Rhon and Sheri Manor of Squaw Valley. When Rhon would ask his young children what they wanted to be when they grew up, Manor would respond by saying that she wanted to be an artist since she loved to draw.

He told me that I was already an artist and that I needed to study something else in college. I loved science and always admired my family doctor, Manor said.

Manor said her parents have been one of her biggest sources of encouragement on her journey to becoming a doctor. Her father flew an F-16 at the Fresno Air National Guard. Her mother, having eight children, was a stay-at-home mom.

My father was very successful in everything he did. I always admired him for protecting our country and for his accomplishments in the air force and academically. He was the one who taught me that I could become anything in the world I wanted to be - even the President of the United States, Manor said.

Manor said her mother is an equally amazing person. She said her mothers example of patience, kindness, empathy and self sacrifice are the driving force behind her desire to become a doctor.

Read the original post:
Squaw Valley native prepares for graduation from medical school

POMONA, CA--(Marketwire -03/28/12)- Dr. Kay Kalousek, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) associate dean and associate professor at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., is the first COMP graduate to become dean of an osteopathic medical school.

A.T. Still University (ATSU) announced on March 27, 2012 that Kalousek had been appointed dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA) in Mesa, Ariz. She will begin her duties on July 1.

Kalousek, who earned her DO degree from COMP in 1989 and her Master's in Health Professions Education in 1994, has been involved with COMP and WesternU for nearly 27 years, ever since she walked onto the campus as a student in 1985.

"Being involved in teaching and facilitating groups and getting more involved in academic medicine during my career has prepared me for my new role, because I've worn many different hats at COMP," Kalousek said. "Under the leadership and mentorship of COMP Dean Clinton Adams, who in my opinion is the best dean in all of the country, I've been able to learn what I would do as a dean and how to make a college successful. COMP certainly has become very successful."

Kalousek, DO, MS, MSHPE, AAHIVS, FACOFP, joined COMP part-time in 2000 and became full-time faculty in 2007.

Kalousek regularly volunteers her time for the underserved and has guided many students by teaching and being a preceptor. She has served several roles in non-profit organizations, including past service as chair of the board of the Foothill AIDS Project.

The City of Montclair named her Volunteer of the Year in 1993, the DO Class of 2006 honored her as Most Inspirational Faculty Member, and she has received many other awards.

In 2010, the California chapter of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) presented her with its Physician of the Year award.

Since COMP's opening in 1977 (the college became Western University of Health Sciences in 1996), the college's graduates have held or are holding many prestigious positions, but this is the first time a graduate of COMP will become dean of an osteopathic medical school, Dean Adams noted.

"Dr. Kalousek has prepared long and hard for this opportunity, having been a leader in the complete revamping of our curriculum to enhance our student-centered lifelong learning experience," said Adams. "She has frequently said 'I came back to COMP because I wanted it to be better than when I was here.'"

See more here:
Kalousek First COMP Graduate to Become Dean of an Osteopathic Medical School

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Boston Medical Center (BMC) and seven affiliated health centers will join Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) Alternative Quality Contract (AQC). The five year agreement combines a global budget with significant performance incentives based on nationally endorsed measures tied to quality, health outcomes, and patient experience. BMC will manage the growth in health care spending to a level that falls below BCBSMAs network average expense trend.

The AQC has become a national model for payment reform and we are pleased that Boston Medical Center has committed to working with us in a deeper, more collaborative way to lower the cost and improve the quality of the care they deliver to their patients, said Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The agreement continues to validate that the AQC is an attractive model that can work for a variety of provider organizations including urban hospitals and community health centers - that are committed to lower the cost and improve the quality of health care.

BMC works with an extensive network of community health centers in Boston, including seven that will participate in the AQC contract: Codman Square Health Center, Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, Greater Roslindale Medical & Dental Center, South Boston Community Health Center, South End Community Health Center, and Upham's Corner Health Center. By joining the AQC, BMC is not only committing to improving the cost and quality of care for patients that seek care at Boston Medical Center - they are committing to work with the seven health center partners to improve the quality and cost of care for patients receiving their care in a health center setting. The AQC contract will also include Boston Medical Centers community-based primary care physicians who are part of the Boston University Affiliated Physicians (BUAP) group. These practices are in Bostons Back Bay and South End, Foxboro, Norwood, and Taunton.

BMCs focus is providing high quality, affordable and accessible care to all our patients, and we work closely with our community health center partners to deliver on that high standard, whether its here at the hospital or in the community, said Kate Walsh, BMC President and CEO. Participating in this agreement together gives us an exciting opportunity to coordinate even more closely, and that will mean even better care for our BCBSMA patients.

East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) provides a range of high quality services to the communities we serve. BMC is a key partner in efficiently and effectively meeting the full spectrum of our patients health needs. Joining together in this agreement not only strengthens our ability to provide great care, its a model for the kind of innovation in health care delivery were all working toward, said John P. Cradock, EBNHC President and CEO.

This agreement brings nearly 800 additional physicians into the AQC who care for approximately 13,000 of BCBSMAs in-state HMO members. The AQC now has more than two-thirds of doctors in BCBSMAs in-state HMO network participating who provide care to approximately 76% of BCBSMA members.

With their significant gains in quality, AQC providers now significantly outperform the rest of BCBSMAs fee-for-service network on a comprehensive set of quality and outcome measures. This is particularly true in managing chronic illness, preventive care screenings and treating depression. Recent independent studies conducted by Harvard Medical School, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and Brandeis University, published in Health Affairs, found that the AQC is achieving its twin goals of improving care and slowing costs.

These studies found that in the first year of the AQC:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. Celebrating our 75th anniversary in 2012, we are committed to working with others in a spirit of shared responsibility to make quality health care affordable. Consistent with our corporate promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nations best health plans for member satisfaction and quality.

View post:
Boston Medical Center Joins Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Alternative Quality Contract

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Using a $30 million anonymous gift, Harvard Medical School has opened a center to redesign primary care and make the field more attractive to new doctors. As one of its first projects, the center is creating a new training program for residents.

The medical school said Wednesday that it has hired Dr. Russell S. Phillips, a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. Dr. Andrew L. Ellner was hired as co-director.

Phillips, 59, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he co-leads a task force to improve transitions in care and reduce readmissions. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Ellner, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, is an associate physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Womens Hospital and the assistant medical director of the Phyllis Jen Center for Primary Care.

Phillips said in an interview last week that the center has started an Academic Innovations Collaborative that will provide more than $10 million in funding over two years to nine primary care teaching practices at six Harvard teaching hospitals, and to eight affiliated community health centers.

The money will help the hospitals redesign their curriculum so that residents train as part of small primary care teams, rather than see patients in a clinic one afternoon a week, largely on their own. This change is part of the strategy to make the fields of internal medicine, family practice, and pediatrics more attractive to new doctors.

Residents dont want to do primary care because its so solitary, Phillips said.

He said that most practices also plan to hire nurse care managers to help residents coordinate care for the most complex patients. Caring for these patients by themselves often feels overwhelming, and getting help from experienced nurses will make caring for these patients more manageable for residents, and also result in better outcomes for our patients, Phillips said.

The new training program will go into effect at the start of the 2013-2014 academic year.

See the original post here:
Harvard Medical School opens center for primary care, appoints director

Another piece of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus began to take shape Wednesday, as architects showcased their ideas for a new medical school at the corner of Main and High streets at the edge of downtown.

The University at Buffalo last month invited four teams to compete for the chance to design the new $375 million School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Wednesday the teams showed UB what they had to offer.

It was challenging, said David Rolland, project director for Rafael Vinoly Architects, which partnered with FoitAlbert Associates. But this is, as architects, what we love. We love the challenge.

UB is scheduled to break ground on the project in September 2013.

Each of the design teams, big-name firms with offices around the world, brought a different vision to the new medical school.

Pelli Clarke Pelli Associates and Cannon Design partnered to create a sleek building with lots of glass and a curved facade at the corner of Main and High.

Rafael Vinoly designed a 10-story, glass structure that included winter gardens and a circular staircase that winds its way throughout the inside of the building.

Grimshaw Architects and Davis Brody Bond designed a building shaped like two bars one a six-story, one nine-story with cascading glass connecting the two to draw in the natural light.

Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum came up with a masonry and glass building that would incorporate retail on the ground floor to draw in the public along Main Street.

We see it as an opportunity to create activity on the street, said Ken Drucker, design partner with HOK.

Excerpt from:
Medical school designs unveiled