What is your hometown?
Colts Neck, New Jersey
When did you join the UI faculty?
1993
How/when did you become interested in science and medicine?
I have been interested in science since childhood and became interested in medicine during graduate school.
What interested you to pursue a career in family medicine?
Family medicine is one of the few specialties that allow one to develop a continuity relationship with people and families over their life span.
Is there a teacher or mentor who helped shape your career?
One of my main role models was my PhD advisor, Patricia Maness, Professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. I have had many wonderful colleagues/mentors in my Department including Drs. Bergus, Bedell, Ely, Jogerst, and James, as well as Drs. Saftlas and Smith in the Department of Epidemiology.
How or why did you choose the UI?
My husband’s career in dental public health led him to take a faculty position here in 1985. We drove into Iowa on January 1st, 1985 and we have lived in the Iowa City area ever since.
What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being a faculty member at Iowa provide? What about challenges?
Opportunities include being able to work with very bright and conscientious individuals with many interests. Challenges include the ever increasing clinical pressures which tend to limit time for academic pursuits.
Please describe your professional interests.
Preventive medicine, colorectal cancer screening, improving bone health, women’s health issues. As the current Director of the Iowa Research Network (IRENE), one of my main professional interests is developing projects using our practice-based research network, the Iowa Research Network (IRENE). IRENE has over 150 family physician practices and our goal is to create new knowledge of relevance to rural primary care clinicians and their patients, with the outcome of improving the care of patients. IRENE was recently selected to be one of the master contractors for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) primary care practice-based research networks. I am currently developing a grant proposal to improve colorectal cancer screening among patients attending Iowa family physician practices.
What are some of your outside interests?
Family, biking, swimming and reading.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional work?
“Is this going to improve the care of patients?”
If you could change one thing about the world (or the world of medicine), what would it be?
Provide all people with access to adequate food, water, and shelter, as well as people who love them.
What is the biggest change you've experienced in your field since you were a student?
The electronic information explosion and the ease of searching the medical literature.
What one piece of advice you would give to today's students?
Talk with your patients, read about their problems, learn what their medications do, and take the time to talk some more with your patients.
What do you see as "the future" of medicine?
Hopefully, our ability to access information quickly will enhance our ability to care for our patients instead of hindering it.
In what ways are you engaged with the greater Iowa public (i.e. population based research, mentoring high school students, sharing your leadership/expertise with organizations or causes, speaking engagements off campus, etc.)?
My research projects take place in the Iowa Research Network, a network of 150 family physician practices across the state of Iowa. Our goal is to improve the health of Iowa’s population, especially rural Iowans.