Page 14 - UD Research Magazine Vol5-No1

Health sciences for the community
Since its opening in January 2014, the Health Sciences Complex at STAR Campus is rapidly becoming the center for patient-focused research and community outreach that Kathleen Matt, dean of the
College of Health Sciences, envisions. She provides UD Research with an update on this new hub for health and wellness activity.
Q. Who has moved into the Health Sciences Complex so far?
A. Our Nurse Managed Health Center and our Physical Therapy
Clinic were among the first to move in. The Nurse Managed Health Center delivers “Primary Care Plus” through a
team of professionals, creating a signature for interprofessional health care deliv- ery. Services currently include nutrition and exercise counseling, chronic disease management workshops, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, occupational health care and health coaching.
The Nurse Managed Health Center is also home to The Parkinson’s Clinic, which offers comprehensive multidisciplinary
care for people with Parkinson’s and sup- port for their families and caregivers. Using our state-of-the-art telehealth technology, a movement disorder specialist brings ad- vanced, specialized care to the 2,000 people in our state who have PD.
The Delaware Physical Therapy Clinic and our academic doctor of physical therapy [DPT] program provide a model for interconnected clinical, research and academic activities: Community mem- bers participate in cutting-edge, patient- centered research conducted by our expert faculty and top-notch graduate students, and the results of that research are fed back into clinical practice as well as
into our academic curricula. The STAR Campus has enabled us to double the
number of students in our DPT program so that we can become even more responsive to community needs, and the co-location of the clinics facil- itates primary and specialized care for our patients.
The first building also houses core labs for use by teams of clinical and academic research- ers from across campus. These shared spaces encourage basic scientists, clinicians, physician scholars and students to work together conducting interdisci- plinary and translational research that changes people’s lives.
Other occupants of the first building include the BADER Consortium, which focuses
on rehabilitation of wounded warriors; the Delaware Rehabil- itation Institute, which brings together clinicians, scientists, engineers and policy-makers to improve the state of the art in rehabilitation medicine; and GoBabyGo!, which is aimed at increasing the cognitive, social and emotional development
of infants and young children with disabilities through move- ment. Within the next year, we’ll also be adding our new Communication Sciences and Disorders graduate program and related clinical services.
Q. How will the STAR Campus af- fect health sciences education?
A. When I talked about the Nurse Managed Health Center earlier,
I said it would deliver care through a team of health professionals. If that’s how we’re going to provide care, it’s critical that we train students in the same way. Effective health care can be delivered only if team members work together to treat disease and injury—and, more importantly, to promote health and wellness—and there is no more effective way to achieve this goal than to educate students in an interprofes- sional environment.
Our goal is to provide our students with as many rich opportunities for learning as
12 | UD RESEARCH
Kathleen Matt, dean of UD’s College of Health Sci- ences, views the Health Scienc-
es Complex at STAR Campus as a place of discovery where researchers and students work together with community partners to invent solutions to health and wellness issues.
EVAN KRAPE