Health Heroes
New Office of Health Research & Partnership Boosts Vital UM Programs
By Susan Cuff
UM launched its Office of Health Research & Partnership a year ago. To understand the potentially life-saving importance of this new organization, consider the following example from the University’s paramedicine program:
A routine day at the office might have turned suddenly tragic recently for a 50-year-old Missoula man when he suffered a cardiac arrest at his workplace. Luckily for him, all of the pieces of a successful emergency response, including a new, innovative medical technique, were in place that day.
A co-worker was a trained Emergency Medical Technician and quickly jumped in to perform CPR. Another coworker called 911 and a response unit was soon on the scene. The response team used a defibrillator on the patient to get his heart restarted, but even with CPR he didn’t respond.
Fortunately, this emergency response team — EMTs, paramedics, and fire department and ambulance personnel — all had trained together on an advanced life-saving technique. Using two defibrillators, they performed “double sequential external defibrillation” — two quick shocks in sequence that got the man’s heart back in rhythm. He was transported to the hospital and recovered within days.
Dave McEvoy, director of UM’s paramedic program, which collaboratively organized and participated in the defibrillator training, says everything went right in the man’s situation. From the EMT available at the site to quick response from emergency personnel to the patient’s speedy trip to the hospital, it was a textbook American Heart Association-approved response.
The key, McEvoy says, was the teamwork and collaborative working relationship among the emergency providers to provide advanced care. Nearly 15 responders were at the scene, and all of them had trained together on the specialized defibrillator procedure. Some were UM students and faculty who work in emergency services during their non-school hours. All first responders in the city of Missoula have trained on the procedure, and McEvoy lauds the close working relationship between the UM paramedic program and city emergency personnel.
“All of them are part of a strong process that is needed for survival,” he says.
McEvoy was with Missoula Emergency Services teaching paramedic classes for 32 years. About five years ago, an edict came down from the federal government that paramedic programs would be required to achieve accreditation in order for their graduates to be certified to go into real-life practice. MESI partnered with UM to develop an accreditation track for the program. This private/public partnership has successfully operated for about three years.
In that time, despite the program getting its start during the chaotic years of the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment has more than doubled. All graduates of the program have been immediately hired after they finish school. Many have gone home to small towns throughout Montana where they serve as professional first responders or as volunteers with the local fire department. The paramedic program has helped to fill a need for trained health professionals in Montana’s rural areas.
The paramedic program is one of a number of workforce training programs supported by the Office of Health Research & Partnership. OHRP was founded in the fall of 2022 after federal grants totaling $5.1 million were awarded from the Health Resource and Service Administration, the primary federal agency responsible for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.
At the time of the grant award, five focus areas were identified for emphasis by OHRP: workforce development, thought leadership, innovation, partnerships, and rural and underserved communities. OHRP Director Lily Apedaile says the first-year focus has been primarily on workforce development.
The workforce development focus ensures training programs meet current needs, provides distance training models that allow equitable access and quick entry into the workforce, and offers training based on skills and case studies to make sure students receive real-world applicable training to become prepared to enter the workforce.
In coordination with UM’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development and with the benefit of a community health care grant, OHRP has developed a health care apprenticeship program that combines classroom training and paid on-the-job training for workers in the health care field.
It’s a way for those who can’t afford to pay for college to obtain education and experience, Apedaile says.
The program currently concentrates on community health workers who work with disadvantaged individuals to address root issues of health, housing and food insecurity — what Apedaile calls the “upstream causes” of health equity issues in health care. Community health workers help individuals in need to navigate the sometimes confusing process of obtaining services.
A pilot community health worker program was launched last summer. Following program assessment and feedback from students, it is continuing this fall. Successful certified community health workers may stay in that sector of the health field, or decide to further their education in health care, social work or other related fields.
OHRP also has worked with Missoula College to revamp some of its offerings in the health care field to make them more accessible to potential students. For example, the medical assisting program now offers an on-line certificate program, and the college also offers dual credit programs and apprenticeships for high school students.
An online “bridge” associate program will help licensed practical nurses jump to becoming registered nurses in just one year. Rural parts of Montana are seeing a severe shortage of registered nurses. The program allows the nursing students to take their courses online without having to leave their home cities and towns.
OHRP works with workforce development partners across campus, including the UM Montana Public Health Training Center, Missoula College and UM-Bitterroot.
“We’re excited to see where these programs in their infancy will go,” Apedaile says.
OHRP is now investigating how to help the 12 health-related clinics spread across the UM campus collaborate in areas such as software, staffing, record-keeping and operational processes. Each of the clinics was developed separately from the others, resulting in redundancy and service crossover. Greater collaboration would result in cost savings and improved continuity of care for clients.
OHRP also is in the beginning stages of feasibility planning for a health extension program across rural Montana that would operate like the current agricultural extension programs, providing health-related expertise, information and education in rural areas. Partners in the effort include UM, county health departments, tribal health centers and critical-care hospitals and clinics. A working group was formed in western Montana to assess the proposal and implement a strategic plan.
Scott Whittenburg, UM vice president of research and creative scholarship, says the first year of OHRP has seen a strong focus on collaboration across campus and the state in addressing health- and medical-related issues.
“Working collaboratively works better,” he says, noting that many offices and departments already are involved in health-related issues and a goal of OHRP is to have them work together where appropriate.
Apedaile echoed this sentiment: “Collaboration between professions enriches the experience for everyone,” she says. OHRP’s goal is to determine “how all of these entities can work together to solve the problem” of the shortage of health-care workers in Montana and improve health outcomes.
Health-related research has been a large part of the growth in research across UM. Whittenburg noted that $55 million was spent in 2013 on research while $135 million is being spent this year. Health-related research is a key part of that growth. •
