UIS to host a free public webinar on how to prepare to reopen your business

The University of Illinois Springfield Office of Economic Development and Innovation, College of Business and Management, College of Public Affairs and Administration and Innovate Springfield will host a free public webinar on how to prepare to reopen your business during COVID-19 from 12-1 p.m. Friday, May 8.

On May 5, Governor J.B. Pritzker released Restore Illinois, the plan to reopen our state outlining the conditions that trigger the multiple phases and determine when and how we can operate. Anticipating and preparing for each phase of reopening is critical to planning for our organizations and reopening the economy. This week’s panelists will put the governor’s plan in context by highlighting case studies from across the country and globe. Exploring these examples will help guide our decision-making, and help us forecast when and under what conditions we can move forward.

Pritzker’s plan divides the state into four regions. Opening our Central Region seems less dependent upon what is happening in Chicago and more dependent on how the virus is impacting the other county in our region, including Champaign County. Monitoring the impact of the virus across those counties will be important to predicting how we might progress or regress through the phases.

The online panel discussion will feature Blair Rowitz, Associate Chief Medical Officer at Carle Health and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs for Carle Illinois College of Medicine; Molly Lamb, Deputy Director of Health Protection at the Illinois Department of Public Health; Dave Oberg, Vice President for Illinois Association of Museums; Ranjan Karri, Professor of Management (Strategy and Entrepreneurship) at UIS College of Business and Management; and Robert Smith, Dean of UIS College of Public Administration.

Participants are encouraged to register for the event at go.uis.edu/COVIDwebinar, however registration is not required. Zoom video and call in connection information can be found on the registration page. This webinar part of a series aimed at providing the local community with expert information and quality resources to navigate these challenging times. For more information, contact Bruce Sommer at 217-899-3186 or bsomm2@uis.edu.

UIS students and faculty take part in a national collaboration studying super-users of healthcare

UIS students Regina Bolin and Sicely Nicholas joined seven other student researchers in Camden, New Jersey in July to begin the collaboration.

Five University of Illinois Springfield students and two faculty member are part of a national collaborative that aims to better understand super-users of healthcare services in the United States.

Over the next six months, UIS students will partner with team members from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, St. John's College of Nursing and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville to engage three to four high-utilizing patients.

The teams of five to six students, will learn about the barriers that medically and socially complex patients face to obtaining high-quality care and maintaining their health.

“Beyond the student opportunities, this program makes a huge difference in patients' lives and in the local community,” said Brittany Carls, a UIS graduate student taking part in the collaboration.

“By working directly with patients, we are able to provide social support, help patients navigate the healthcare system, get patients on track to reaching their health goals, and lower the economic burden that often occurs with super-utilizers," she added.

Through online curriculum and accompanying monthly case conferencing, the students will learn the key aspects of high-utilizer interventions: obtaining and using data for patient identification and selection, engaging patient and communities, motivational interviewing, transitioning patients to their primary care providers, and recording patient outcomes.

UIS Associate Professor of Business Administration Jorge Villegas and UIS Social Work Fieldwork Director and Advisor Vincent Flammini will assist the students.

UIS students taking part in the collaboration include Brittany Carls (MBA), Regina Bolin and Colleen McMahon (BBA), and Sicely Nicholas and Katherine Selway (Social Work).

The central Illinois team is one of 30 teams across the nation engaging with high-utilizing patients during the Interprofessional Student Hotspotting Learning Collaborative. Findings will be reviewed during a wrap-up meeting in January 2017 in Camden, New Jersey.

The collaboration is being held in conjunction with the Camden Coalition, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Primary Care Progress (PCP).