WEST LEBANON — Friends of Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital is slated to host a discussion about emergency medicine with its new chief medical officer on Tuesday.
Dr. Michael Lynch, who joined APD as chief medical officer this year, previously served as executive medical director of same-day services at Reliant Medical Group in Worcester, Mass. He also spent 11 years with Concord (N.H.) Emergency Medical Associates. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a medical degree from the University of Virginia. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota. He also holds an MBA from Brandeis University.
Lynch will be joined by his Dartmouth-Hitchcock colleagues, Dr. Scott Rodi and Dr. Matthew Babineau, for a discussion of current emergency medicine programs at APD and the future of the service at Lebanon’s critical access hospital.
The free discussion is scheduled for Tuesday from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon. For more information, email rsvp@apdmh.org or call 603-443-9569.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center announced Dr. Daniel O’Rourke as the new chief of staff in White River Junction.
O’Rourke started his VA career at the White River Junction VA in 1996 as a cardiologist and was named the chief of cardiology in 2004. Over the past year, he has served as acting chief of staff at the facility.
“The White River Junction VA is excited to have Dr. O’Rourke join the leadership team as it is another big step towards long-term stability for our entire organization” Dr. Brett Rusch, executive director of White River Junction VA, said in a news release. “As a long-committed member of our community, I know that Dan cares deeply about our VA and about the Veterans we serve!”
O’Rourke is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and nuclear cardiology, and is an associate professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. In his spare time, O’Rourke coaches the girls varsity basketball team at Hanover High School.
O’Rourke holds a bachelor’s degree from Siena College, a medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., and master’s degrees from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and from Xavier University. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Pittsburgh and his cardiology fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1996.
LEBANON — As part of National Hygiene Awareness Week, Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO Joanne Conroy is scheduled to host a Facebook Live conversation about winter wellness on Monday.
Along with Dr. George Blike, chief quality and value officer at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Conroy will discuss hand hygiene and tips for staying healthy this winter. They invite questions from the community, which can be submitted during the livestream or in advance to social@hitchcock.org.
The live discussion can be viewed on Monday at noon at facebook.com/dartmouthhitchcock.
LEBANON — A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, earlier this month would add residency positions in addiction medicine to academic medical centers such as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
The Opioid Workforce Act, which a group including U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., introduced in the House this summer, would create 1,000 new medical residency positions in addiction medicine, addiction psychiatry and pain management at teaching hospitals across the country, according to a release issued by Hassan’s office. Each hospital can have up to 25 positions through the legislation.
“Dartmouth-Hitchcock and hospitals across the country are engaged in cutting-edge research and life-saving efforts to combat substance misuse, and my bipartisan bill with Senator Collins will help ensure that these hospitals have the resources that they need to create and expand their addiction prevention and treatment programs,” Hassan said in the release.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO Joanne Conroy expressed support for the measure.
“This legislation will provide critical resources to bolster our work in training the next generation of frontline health care providers,” Conroy said in the release.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Veterans can now go online to join a voluntary research initiative to help the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs study how genes affect veterans’ health.
More than 775,000 veterans have already joined the Million Veteran Program, which helps researchers better understand how genes affect health and illness and may help prevent and improve treatments of disease.
“MVP has already resulted in a number of important scientific publications that increase our knowledge of conditions that affect veterans’ health, and we expect this resource to continue to prove its value over the coming years,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a news release. “VA is excited to announce the launch of MVP Online, which will make it even easier for Veterans nationwide to take part in this landmark research effort.”
Veterans can now use their existing VA credentials to securely log in to MVP Online to learn more about the program. Veterans can use the online portal to complete the consent process, allow access to health records for research purposes, answer surveys about their health and lifestyle and schedule an MVP visit at a participating VA site — such as the White River Junction VA — to provide a blood sample. More information about the program is available online at mvp.va.gov or by calling 866-441-6075. Walk-in office hours are available at the White River Junction VA Medical Center Mountains Building, room 132 from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
— Complied by
Nora Doyle-Burr