Health Care Matters: Exploring the Possibilities
Monday, November 23, 2009
Biology 200-A  6-7:30 p.m

Join this open-ended conversation with pre-med advisor, Julie Kern Smith, Dr. Lloyd Olson '57, and Dr. Judith Gedney Baggs '67 for the second installment of Health Care Matters this year. There are so many options open to health care professionals! Dr. Olson and Dr. Gedney have a breadth of experience and knowledge to provide insights and recommendations. Their collected experience alone spans pediatrics to geriatrics, beginning of life trauma and end of life decisions; ICU care, disease and wellness. They will lead a discussion that may include such topics as medical diagnosis, technology, treatment, research, ethics, education, policy, and politics. Please bring your questions!

Bios
Dr. Olson earned his Doctor of Medicine at Harvard. He trained in pediatrics in Rochester NY and Seattle. Dr. Olson spent 6 years in the US Army at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and SEATO Research Laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand. He worked primarily with virus etiology of respiratory tract infections in military recruits and in Thai children. Lloyd also did extensive research on Reye Syndrome in northeastern Thailand (aflatoxin contamination of glutinous rice seemed to be the cause in 1970). He spent three years in Microbiology Department at Indiana University School of Medicine. The final 29 years of his career were at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO, as pediatric infectious disease specialist. He became chairman of the department of Pediatrics in 1983 for University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. He also served as medical director of the Medicaid Managed Care program sponsored by the hospital.  Lloyd retired in June, 2005 and moved back out to the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Baggs started graduate work in English, then several years and many adventures later, decided nursing was where she wanted to go. After six years of working in emergency room and ICU nursing with an associates RN degree, she earned a BS in nursing then a master's in nursing. It was during her master's work that she discovered a love of research. She worked 2 years as a research assistant and returned for her Ph.D. in nursing. She worked initially as a hospital researcher with a part-time academic appointment. She moved into a tenure track academic appointment from there. She has conducted research, taught, and worked as an Associate Dean for Academics at the University of Rochester and at the OHSU School of Nursing. Currently, she has left administration for a distinguished professorship and is focusing on her research (end of life decision making in intensive care units), mentoring, and teaching. She sits on an NIH Study Section and edits one of the three premier general nursing research journals.