From the Dean

This issue's cover story describes the work of University clinicians and researchers who are exploring innovative approaches to treating and curing epilepsy. They are collaborating with pharmacologists, biomedical engineers, and even doctors of veterinary medicine to find new ways to make epilepsy manageable for patients like 7-year-old Colby Beaulieu from Barnum, Minnesota, and 34-year-old Norys Andrea, a native of Venezuela.

While these doctors use high-resolution structural and functional imaging, deep-brain stimulation, and other leading-edge technologies, physicians across campus are applying equally important low-tech approaches to patient care.

As you will read in "Living on the streets," several University initiatives aim to improve the health of Minnesota's homeless population by providing such basics as access to care and counseling.

John Song, M.D., M.P.H., and colleagues from the Center for Bioethics are embarking on a study to find out whether counseling encourages homeless people to prepare advance directives and how those directives influence end-of-life-care.

Another study, by Kolawole Okuyemi, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Medical School's Program in Health Disparities Research, will evaluate the success of smoking-cessation programs, including motivational counseling, in homeless populations.

Our "Targeting teen health" story shows the importance of screening to help teens survive risk-filled years that too often involve drunk driving, accidents, depression, drugs, and violence. You'll find that we're a pacesetter in adolescent health.

Finally, don't miss our call to contact your legislators and urge them to support the University's proposal for funding biomedical research buildings and programs. We need more state-of-the-art research space to attract and retain top faculty members and to facilitate their work and their collaboration.

Deborah E. Powell, M.D.
Dean, University of Minnesota Medical School
McKnight Presidential Leadership Chair