uncnews.unc.edu

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

International Coverage

Kenan-Flagler has doctors in the house
Financial Times
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has become the latest US university to launch an accelerated programme for those who want to study medicine, through its medical school, and business, through its Kenan-Flagler business school. ...James Dean, dean of Kenan-Flagler, said the collaboration was part of a larger partnership to train healthcare professionals. “This unparalleled program - fusing the assets of top business and medical schools - will prepare leaders in science to continue to drive innovation in human health while they master tools to transform healthcare to reflect higher standards of affordability.”
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5347/1/

National Coverage

Presidential Libraries, Museums Are Dark Horses on Campus, Students Say
U.S. News & World Report
..."Typically, students interested in economics, history, and political science have the most to gain. That said, the resources provided by and gravitas attached to a presidential library on campus is in my opinion worth consideration by students interested in other academic subjects," says Pathiraja, a member of the J.D. class of 2012 at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill School of Law.

Marked For Death: Geert Wilders 'Jihad' Against Islam
The Huffington Post
...Researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for instance, found the threat of Islamic extremism to be over-exaggerated. According to the study, it was Muslim-American communities themselves who played a key role in keeping the number of radicalized members low.

U.S. liver transplants declining
HealthDay News
...The researchers found that the total number of donors who have at least one organ recovered for transplant has stopped increasing over the past few years, despite an increasing proportion of organs donated after cardiac death. "Cardiac death donation is negatively impacting the overall number of liver transplants that we can do," study leader Dr. Eric Orman, a gastroenterology fellow at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, said in a meeting news release.

Helping At-Risk Children Succeed in School: There's No Such Thing as Too Early
The Huffington Post
...A University of North Carolina study shows that higher quality early care classrooms lead to better outcomes for children including increased school readiness, greater language abilities, higher math and reading scores, and increased non-verbal skills.

The “Valley of Death” Looms for 8 Kids with a Rare Disease (Blog)
Scientific American
...What the pharmaceutical industry and public health community need, for the long-term, is a new way of treating disease, such as gene or stem cell therapy. “A one-time treatment that is effective would reduce or eliminate long-term supportive care, which is certainly in the interest of public health and reducing overall health care costs,” says Steven Gray, Ph.D., the researcher at UNC who’s engineering the viruses for the GAN trial.

Regional Coverage

Texas State gets $3.1M for research partnership
The Austin Business Journal (Texas)
...The grant will fund the first five years of a collaboration between the Texas State Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, which includes students and faculty from Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University. Duke, North Carolina State and University of North Carolina — all tier 1 research universities located within 20 minutes of each other — form the so-called Research Triangle, for which the region is named.

State and Local Coverage

UNC launches MD/MBA program
The Triangle Business Journal
Doctors interested in opening their own private practices can now enroll in a program focused on business and patient care. Starting this fall, UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine and the Kenan-Flagler Business School will team up to offer medical students a dual-degree in medicine with a master’s of business administration.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5347/1/

UNC-Chapel Hill to launch planning process, fundraising drive
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp Thursday announced a yearlong planning process to create a “21st century vision” of the university and a fund drive that does not yet have a dollar-figure attached to it. Thorp said it’s important to refocus the university at a time when higher education, especially public higher education, faces growing revenue stresses.

UNC leaders applaud WakeMed deal
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC leaders said Wednesday that the deal struck this week between WakeMed and UNC Health Care to improve mental health care in Wake County is a “win-win” for both organizations. As part of the deal, the two healthcare organizations agreed to end their feud over patient care in Wake County and announced that UNC Health Care will build and operate a $30 million, 28-bed inpatient psychiatric facility in Wake County to address crisis and emergency demand, which has increased since the closure of Dorothea Dix Hospital.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/25/2087822/dick-sears-moving-on
.html#storylink=misearch

Judge’s recommendation complicates hospitals’ expansion plans in Wake
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Local hospitals may see their Wake County expansion plans delayed further as a result of an administrative judge’s recent filing. Administrative Law Judge Beecher R. Gray found that last year the state improperly analyzed three hospital systems’ proposals to build new hospitals or expand existing ones in Wake County.

UNC-CH trustees question how academic fraud happened
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill trustees, briefed Thursday on the academic fraud uncovered in the African and Afro-American Studies department, asked pointed questions about accountability in the university’s academic operations.
Related Links:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/18719002/article-UNC-board-members-
question-fraud-response
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-north-carolina-trustees-scrutinize-academic-fraud-case/43547
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/11138346/

UNC Health foresees declining income
The Triangle Business Journal
After three straight years of increased operating income and margins that grew to double digits, the University of North Carolina Health Care System projects declines for the current year and next year.

Issues and Trends

UNC's Friday released from hospital, family says
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
University of North Carolina President Emeritus William Friday is recovering at home, a week after surgery to implant a pacemaker, his family said Thursday. The family extended thanks to well-wishers, and asked that calls and visits to the 91-year-old be limited as he faces "an extended period of rehabilitation toward a full recovery."
Related Links:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8675554
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/18719037/article-Friday-released
-from-hospital--recuperating-at-home

Public schools see cuts eased in NC House budget
The Associated Press
...The education subcommittee made the biggest splash by agreeing to reduce the expected $503 million in state money that school districts would have been required to return next school year to $170 million. Similar reduction mandates for the University of North Carolina and community college system were narrowed slightly, however. In other subcommittees,

More reasons to worry (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Thanks for the May 7 Point of View piece by Jeffrey M. Hirsch and Sherryl Kleinman (“UNC employees are right to worry”). There are several additional reasons to be worried about a separate UNC personnel system. (Steve Hutton, Pittsboro)