CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 9. 1992
3
Hospitals seek video hookup with Med Center
By Joe Harder
Kansan staff writer
Several western Kansas communities are trying to access a two-way video system based at the University of Kansas Medical Center that would allow patients as far away as the Colorado border to be seen by specialists in Kansas City.
The current video system has been operating for about a year, with stations linking the Med Center and the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita with the Western Area Health Education Center in Hays.
For several small communities, the video system is seen as a partial answer to a chronic health care shortage.
State-of-the-art technology transmits video images and voices, as well as medical data such as X-rays and echocardiograms. The system has been used in a variety of ways, including conferences, examinations in specialty areas such as neurology and cardiology, and even hypnotic therapy.
"We don't have a lot of resources such as specialists available," said Steine Reiner, a Kearney County Hospital administrator in Lakin. "We're ce
Richard Morrissey, director of the Kansas office of local and rural health systems, said that much of the problem was due to a general exodus from rural to urban areas.
tainly an underserved county."
"In many rural areas you have a declining population, which means a declining economic base," Morrissey said.
In addition, many recently graduated physicians are unwilling to practice in an area where they are one of only a few physicians, said Robert Cox, medical director of rural health for the Med Center.
"They are isolated in terms of peers,
in terms of access to consultation and in terms of on-call duty," he said.
But the video system could alleviate some of those illis. Reiner sees it performing three primary purposes: making consultations with peers more readily available, increasing physician recruitment, and allowing for quick information and diagnosis in emergency room situations.
The Lakin hospital, together with hospitals in Johnson and Syracuse, is pursuing a grant administered by the federal Rural Electrification Administration. The grant, which could provide up to $500,000, would allow the hospitals to purchase the equipment
necessary for hook-ups with each other and with the Med Center, said Bill Mahler, executive director of the department of information technology at the Med Center.
Each video unit costs about $100,000.
Expansion to some other areas already is planned. Within two months, a Ransom hospital and the Hays Medical Center will be connected with the Med Center, Mahler said. Other health centers, including the Pratt Regional Medical Center, St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City and Hospital District #1 in Girard have expressed interest in tapping
into the system.
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But while the technology is available, there are still policy concerns regarding its use, Morrissey said.
"One of the reasons there isn't more expansion is because of some of those problems," he said.
A study currently under way, "Telemedicine; Assessing the Kansas Environment," will answer some of those questions, Morrissey said. The study will be conducted by health care experts across the state and will provide a policy guide for users of the new technology, as well as give health practitioners a guide to the field of medicine communications.
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
City Commission votes to renew bar's license
By Kristy Dorsey
Kansan staff writer
taking advantage of the cool weather, Chris Garcia, Brownsville, Texas, junior, studies American Colonial History. He was one of many students who did not get caught up on homework during the long weekend.
After a one-week deferment, the Lawrence City Commission approved the liquor license of Los Salon. 508 Locus, by a 40 vote.
City commissioners last night renewed the liquor license of a local bar after hearing reports that the bar's owner would cooperate with angry nearby residents.
Ah,fall
Bob Walters, city commissioner,
asked the commission to put off the vote at last week's meeting until the city could investigate alleged violations by Los Amigos of Alcoholic Beverage Control codes.
Mike Wildgen, city manager,
reported to the commission that he
spoke to the owner of Los Amigos
twice during the past week about
complaints from residents near the
bar. The complaints included reports
of intoxicated patrons fighting, tree passing and urinating in yards.
Wilden said that David Cobb, Lawrence police evening shift manager, also spoke with Los Amigos' owner on Sept. 1.
Both Wildden and Cobb said that the owner of the establishment was cooperative in dealing with the reported problems. Wildden told the commission that although most of the infractions were not occurring on the establishment's property, the owner said he would help police control unruly patrons leaving the bar.
"Most of these problems are off-the-premises situations," Wildgen said, "but the owner indicated to me that he had been notified with police to control these problems."
Part of that effort includes the distribution of a bulletin to Los Anigos customers advising them of the city regulations in effect around the area, Wilden said.
Religious groups want to raise students' interest, awareness
Leaders say University is place to explore faith revive spirituality
By Muneera Naseer
Kansan staff writer
Rain did not stop the Kansas University Religious Advisors group from setting tables outside Stauffer-Flint yesterday in an effort to revive spirituality among students.
Jay Henderson, president of KURA and campus minister of the United Methodist Campus Ministry, said that spiritual awareness week was designed to give students opportunity to become aware of how important spirituality was in their lives and to be aware of the spiritual organizations on campus.
"Our goal is to encourage students to visit as many religious organizations as they want." he said.
Explaining why few students were stopping by the table, Henderson said that students either were not interested or were comfortable with their spiritual lives.
Henderson said that some students thought that religion did not deal with reality.
As far as the practicality of religion is concerned, Henderson said. "There's not a more practical way I can think of than reaching out in love for another person. It can be caring, giving food, traveling to Nicaragua, lobbying in Washington D.C., for more just laws.
"Religion is not separate from life. Religion is not something you do on a Sunday."
Thad Holcombe, campus pastor for the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, said he did not think that students, especially college ones, were unconcerned or uncaring about religion.
"I think they care a lot," he said.
Holcombe said that during the first week of the semester, nearly 50 students signed up for activities such as Habitat for Humanity.
He said that students might veer away from religion, or from the religion they were brought up with, because they wanted the faith to be their own, with their own understanding of it, not anyone else's.
"I think a really healthy dynamic happens to all students is that they step back from tradition and ask, do they want to be committed or involved in some faith or in any other faith," he said. "After all, they are in the University, a place where questions are nurtured and supported, rightfully so."
Holcombe also said that students might not have felt the space to raise questions until they got to a university.
"A lot of students don't raise questions because it's scary. It's an intimate question," he said. "The worst thing we can do about students and religion is to stereotype them, that they are all in one and in the same place."
At one booth there was a question for students to answer. I read, "In all seriousness, you could ask
Rick Walters, campus director of the Jayhawker Campus Fellowship, said that students asked questions like "What happens to non-Christians when they die," or "Are you really God."
New age coming, Smithsonian expert says
The year 1992 marks a significant turning point in the way humans deal with the environment, said Leonard Hirsch, a Sinnisonian Institution specialist who spoke last night at the Kansas Union.
By Christine Laue Kansan staff writer
"We're at a fascinating time in human history in 1992, and it's a time for reflection," Hirsch said.
The Office of International Studies and Programs sponsored the lecture, which was held at the Centennial Room in the Kansas Union.
Hirsch, an international liaison specialist at the Office of International Relations, called to mind Columbus' voyage 500 years ago, comparing that period of historic change to today. He said humans' self concept changed from being deity-centered to human-centered.
"What it meant is that we thought we were above nature," he said.
But that sense of human control, which spawned mechanical devices like air conditioning, has had a negative effect on the environment. Those effects are causing humans to change once again, he said.
"We're going back to the concept of enlightenment," he said. "People want to make a difference, and I think that's what we're going to see happen.
Learn to Fly 842-0000
"All of us have to look at how we live. But more importantly, we have to do it to ourselves."
He said people had learned that waste thrown into the ocean did not disappear, for example. These seemingly small changes have more significant long-term effects, such as changes in weather patterns.
Studying trees and other organisms gave humans the capacity to prevent
"Trees can't say, 'Gee. I don't like the conditions here. I'm going to move 10 miles up," Hirsch said.
A 3.5-degree change in the global temperature would result in disruption of economic patterns, starvation, and enormous dislocation of humans, Hirsch said. But other living things must adapt in other ways.
further deterioration of the environment, he said.
"We can learn a lot from the natural systems around us," he said. "We have to learn more about the organisms we're using."
One step in that direction was the recent United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the meeting of its kind ever held, Hirsch said.
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
Leonard Hirsch, an international liaison specialist for the Smithsonian Institution, gives examples of modern society's effects on the environment.
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