Montana

This summer, a group of Montana WWAMI medical students embarked on an international health project 6,000 miles from home. Montana WWAMI students MS2 Haley Rogers, MS2 Daniel Gray, MS4 Nathaniel Sisson, and MS4 Jenna Starke spent a month in Northern Mongolia, joined by peers from the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS), a resident doctor, and BioRegions International employees. Their united goal: To enhance patient...

Today’s Scholarly Spotlight is also a news story. The news:  Christopher "CJ" Johnson, an MS2 in Montana, has won the Physician-Scientist Support Foundation (PSSF) Medical Scholars Research Fellowship (MSRF) award for 2023-2024. Johnson is one of only five students in the nation selected to receive a one-year fellowship award that will support him for a full year of laboratory research starting in Summer 2023. The opportunity: The fellowship will...

Emma Every, MS2, Spokane The challenge: The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is home to about 10,000 members of the Blackfeet Nation, located east of Glacier National Park in Montana. A community health assessment conducted in 2017 listed reducing the high rates of cancer as one of the community’s top health priorities; cancer has historically been the leading cause of death on the reservation. Notably, only 51...

Interprofessional projects use the talents of students from different disciplines to help the underserved and vulnerable By Jordi Despaigne. interprofessional program coordinator The National Health Initiative (NHI) Community Medicine Cabinet is an interdisciplinary program that is currently being led by two passionate first-year medical students at the Bozeman foundation site, Erin Petersen and Anna McEvoy, with the collaboration of local pharmacy students. This program provides clinical...

Montana State University has awarded a Pure Gold honor to Kayla Ouert, Program Manager for the WWAMI Medical Education Program at MSU Bozeman (Gold is one of MSU's colors). People who nominated Ouert for the award, including Martin Teintze, Ph.D., Director of the program, wrote: "Kayla has been doing an extraordinary job as WWAMI Program Manager. She is incredibly efficient and talented. As the only staff...

A medical student who'd been badly hurt at age 16 in a car accident will be mentored this summer by the physician who helped to save her life. You can read about Chloe Koessl in her own words through a story in the Billings Gazette. Koessl is from Glasgow, Montana, a town of just under 5,000 people. After the accident, Koessl was rushed to the town's small...

Montana students recently enjoyed a class in herbal medicine. Colette Kirchhoff, M.D., taught about the importance of herbal medicine and how plants found in our backyard can benefit our health. And you can't have an herbal medicine class without a backyard picnic. Learn more on the Montana WWAMI Instagram page.

Colette Kirchhoff,  M.D., Montana WWAMI FCM Director, received the Bozeman Business & Professional Women (BPW) 2022 Woman of Achievement award. This award recognizes someone who has made outstanding contributions in professional work and community service and who has been a ground breaker and has impacted those around her.  If you’d like to see the presentation of the award, you can see Dr. Kirchhoff get the honor...

The WRITE – Excellence in Teaching honor, awarded by the UWSOM Office of Rural Programs, recognizes WWAMI preceptors with a track record of excellence in teaching medical students as well as service as a leader in the community. Nominations were collected from WRITE students across WWAMI. A selection committee then reviewed all nominations based on five criteria: commitment to student success, effective teaching methods,...

Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST) scholar and MS3 Erin A. Calkins addressed food insecurity head-on for her WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience (WRITE) project. Calkins created the GROW 406 Food Pantry Project that has so far offered food to more than 250 people at five weekend pop-up events in Anaconda, Montana. Calkins was inspired to create the food pantry after hearing from many patients and...