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Bush Foundation Announces Nine Medical Fellows for 2008

May 28, 2008—

Since the Bush Medical Fellows Program began in 1979, it has chosen more than 300 fellows from the Foundation’s region of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to sharpen their skills, change their career directions and improve the health of their communities.

The 2008 medical fellowships will support study in a wide range of fields including sexual health, sleep medicine, post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans, maternal health, mental health services for children, medical information technology, acupuncture and integrative medicine. The three female and six male fellows include psychiatrists, family medicine physicians, an emergency medical practitioner and a health system administrator. Four of the 2008 fellows practice in the Twin Cities metro, while the other five serve communities in Greater Minnesota.

Specific information about each fellow follows; individual photos of the fellows can be viewed on this site

In Greater Minnesota Sheri Bergeron, M.D. (Hermantown) — Bergeron is passionate about the need for a coordinated approach to identifying children who have been maltreated. She will use her fellowship to prepare herself to develop an outreach program that will train medical practitioners and other agencies that work with children to recognize, report and care for children who are abuse victims. Bergeron is a family practice physician at the Mt. Royal Medical Center in Duluth.

Troy Hanson, M.D. (New Prague) — Hanson has dedicated himself to the fields of infant and early childhood mental health and development, and public mental health. He will use his fellowship to strengthen his skills in these areas and hopes to create integrated public mental health programs that provide all children and families with the skills, tools, services and support they need to ensure young children are mentally well. Hanson is currently a locum tenens physician.

Christopher Pensinger, M.D. (Zimmerman) — Pensinger sees evidence that improved medical care can come from something as simple as an electronic (versus paper) medical record, yet in 2007, fewer than half of Minnesota residents had electronic medical records. He plans to increase his technical and leadership skills through the fellowship and thus position himself to champion a faster transition to electronic recordkeeping systems. Pensinger is in family practice at Fairview Health Services in Elk River.

Douglas Sill, M.D. (Chisago City) — Sill has seen an increase in the need for pain management in his patients and in the resulting use of narcotic pain medication. In an attempt to provide his patients with more options, Sill will study acupuncture. He also believes acupuncture can act as a catalyst that will help him develop an integrative medicine approach in his community. Sill is in family practice at the Allina Medical Clinic in Forest Lake.

William Spinelli, M.D. (Hastings, Minnesota) — As he began to think about retirement, Spinelli knew that while he might want a slower pace he still wanted to be of medical service. He has envisioned a plan for late-career physicians that would allow them to mentor younger doctors, alleviate work force shortages, preserve their accumulated wisdom and contribute to the larger communities in ways that may not have been feasible earlier in their careers. Spinelli sees patients as a family practitioner in the Allina Medical Clinic in Hastings.

In the Twin Cities Metro Kristin Christiansen, M.D. (Inver Grove Heights) — As a faculty member at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Christiansen’s practice is a combination of patient care and teaching. She plans to improve her clinical skills in sexual health and in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunctions so she can provide a higher level of care to her patients, better instruct her students and do outreach to a variety of faith communities about the importance of sexual intimacy in the marital relationship.

Imran Khawaja, M.D. (Eagan) — Khawaja is the staff psychiatrist and medical director for the Psychiatry Partial Hospitalization Program, Department of Psychiatry, at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis. In that capacity, he sees soldiers returning from service in the Middle East, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and related sleep disturbances. He will use his fellowship to become a sleep medicine specialist in order to improve treatment for these veterans.

Helen Kim, M.D. (Minneapolis) — Due to a shortage of psychiatrists available to treat pregnant and post-partum mothers who experience mental illness, Kim plans to expand on her current work as a psychiatrist and director of the Hennepin Women’s Mental Health Program at Hennepin County Medical Center to provide these women with an integrative model for care. She hopes to be able to expand the services her program provides beyond the metro to cover all of Minnesota.

Marcus Thygeson, M.D. (Minneapolis) — Thygeson is medical director and vice president of consumer health solutions at HealthPartners in Minneapolis. He is excited about the potential for improving health outcomes and affordability by studying and applying new thinking about the complex health care systems through which patients get care.

The Bush Foundation is a private grantmaking organization that made grants of approximately $40 million in 2007 to support programs and efforts to sustain communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. It was founded in 1953 by 3M Corporation executive Archibald Bush and his wife Edyth.

In addition to the Bush Medical Fellowships, the Foundation also grants fellowships to artists and leaders. With a mission to improve the quality of life in this region, the Foundation aims to be a catalyst to shape vibrant communities by investing in courageous and effective leadership that significantly strengthens and improves the well-being of the region’s people.

For additional information contact: Victoria Tirrel, Communications, 651-379-2238