In the News

Organizers said 23 tribes from Minnesota and Wisconsin were represented. Such inclusion is crucial to Dr. Thomas Wyatt, Hennepin Healthcare’s senior medical director and a member of the Shawnee and Quapaw tribes. Wyatt said many of the young people had never seen an American Indian like him in the medical profession. They are not alone.

“There’s between five and six million doctors in the U.S., and 4,000 of them are indigenous,” said Wyatt.

Aida Strom, Hennepin Healthcare’s health equity community engagement program manager and a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Nation, said such disparities result in worse health outcomes for American Indians. Strom said Hennepin Healthcare serves the most Indigenous hospital patients in Minnesota, but more work could be done.

“Emergency medical services professionals know that when it comes to administering medications – whether in the back of an ambulance, the side of the road, in someone’s home, or in the many settings in between – there are several unique challenges that demand creativity and confidence in the prehospital setting.” – Holly Drone, clinical pharmacist in emergency medicine.

“I call it the perinatal perfect storm of hormonal change,” said Dr. Helen Kim, a reproductive psychiatrist and director of the Hennepin Healthcare Mother-Baby Program.

“The coordinators at HCMC were amazing. The process leading to the actual transplant was comprehensive and thorough. My husband accompanied me to all of my appointments,” Cherida said with a smile.

“All you see is young, previously healthy people in pain and suffering and scared,” Dr. Jim Miner said.

“There’s not one kid that doesn’t make it that doesn’t impact you,” Dr. Ashley Bjorklund said.

“It can be devastating and heartbreaking,” Dr. Kofi Fosu said.

“I feel like the general public doesn’t have any idea how bad it is,” nurse Daniela Morales said.

“I have never seen a patient say no to food bags,” said Nimo Ahmed, a nurse midwife with Hennepin Healthcare “They’re always happy to accept it, and many of our families actually need it.”

Dr. Tony Severt, Assistant Chief of Radiology with Hennepin Healthcare said any score higher than 20% likelihood should warrant further testing. Olivia Munn’s score was 37%. That led to an MRI, then an ultrasound, and lastly a biopsy which revealed her cancer.

Felicia Ikebude, a nurse practitioner at Hennepin Healthcare‘s Brooklyn Park location, says they often see an increase in emergency visits after a heavy snowfall.

“The brainstem has two linked nuclei that generate the protective paralysis of REM sleep, and when one of them, or their connecting pathway, becomes damaged, that releases muscle tone,” said Carlos Schenck, a psychiatrist at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. “People can then act out their dreams.”

After a successful launch in 2023, Hennepin Healthcare Foundation returns with Adventurama 2024, an urban experience in downtown Minneapolis.

Dr. Behnam Sabayan of Hennepin Healthcare joins Susie Jones to talk about strokes. He answers listener questions about things like atrial fibrillation risks to TIA’s and talks about Hennepin Healthcare’s new technologies to help in stroke treatment.

Hennepin EMS will become the first ambulance service in the country to equip its entire fleet with a weighing system, according to Charlie Sloan, the deputy chief of operations.

Dr. Grant Larson, a radiologist at Hennepin Healthcare, said the health system’s four MRI machines rely on helium to operate.

“With pancreatitis sometimes you get this really aggressive inflammatory response, so his heart was racing and he was spiking fevers on and off during his hospital stay,” Dr. Dave Kahat said.

“We like to talk about space, staff, and stuff — or supplies,” explains Seth Jones, Emergency Program Manager. “So if we get we get inundated to the point where it overwhelms our capacities and our capabilities, that would result in a mass casualty incident.”

“All of us play a piece in that. And when one of those pieces falls out of line or doesn’t do their part, that’s when things start to break down. We all have to be on the same team,” Battalion Chief Tyler Lupkes with Hennepin EMS said.

Yan Kravchenko, director of core technology and information security at Hennepin Healthcare, said his team manages more than 50,000 devices.

“Quite literally every aspect of health care at this point has some technology component to it, which is to say nothing of all the medical devices that we rely on every single day,” he added. “An attacker has to be right once, but someone responsible for defending our systems we have to be right 100% of the time. We have to always be prepared. It never stops.”

“People who have insulin deficiency or type one diabetes simply cannot live without this medication,” said Dr. Laura LaFave, a physician with Hennepin Healthcare.

“What we would want with the patient, if they decided to make that change, that would be a provider-patient decision for sure,” explained Mark Holtan, Specialty Pharmacy Manager at Hennepin Healthcare. “They may expect an adjustment period of going off one med and on another. You will always have that period of time where you’re sort of washing out of one medicine and adding a new one on.”

East Lake Clinic’s stated vision is to “transform the clinic into a place for trauma healing for staff and patients—transforming the health of our community by transforming the health of our clinic.”

“At times it can be a heady exercise, trying to wrap my head around the sheer number of individuals from all walks of life and ethnicities who come to East Lake Clinic with current and past traumas poorly affecting their mental and physical health,” says Dr. Ndidiamaka Koka in a reflection she wrote about the clinic’s transformation.