Health Guide 2016

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Bullhook clinic plans to improve quality service Paul Dragu pdragu@havredailynews.com

Bullhook Community Health Center in Hill County started out as a brainchild of the Hill County Health Consortium in 2004 and has come a long way since. The consortium had conducted a survey to find the greatest health needs in Hill County. “We were doing assessments to find out what gaps and services that we had in the community and needs,” CEO Cindy Smith, who has been leading the clinic since its inception, said. “We found out there was a great dental need and services for folks who didn’t have money to get in right away to see a doctor.” But Congress had put a temporary hold on funding for new Community Health Center grants, so the consortium applied for and received a health center grant. The result was the start of Bullhook clinic. The clinic first opened in 2005 as part of the Hill County Health Department. It offered a sliding-fee payment scale depending on income, and accepted Medicare, Medicaid, Montana Healthy

Bullhook Community Health Center, located on 5th Avenue.

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten

Kids, insurance and private payments. Then, in 2006, federal funds were cut and Bullhook reorganized to continue operating until Community Health Center grants came available again, which happened at the end of 2006. After applying for and receiving a federal Community Health Center grant and becoming an independent nonprofit entity, it opened in 2007 as Bullhook Community Health Center in a space leased from Northern Montana Hospital on 13th Street, just east of the hospital. In 2008, Bullhook added dental services in space leased in the Atrium Mall. In 2012, U.S. Health and Human Services Human Resources and Services Administration awarded Bullhook a $4.95 million grant with the intent to remodel Donaldson Hall on the Montana State University-Northern campus and turn it into the home of the health center. But the university administration backed out of the agreement made by previous administrators. “When we first got funded, we had been funded to renovate the Donaldson Hall at the university,

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Doctors ‘prescribe’ fresh produce with help from food banks CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer OAK FOREST, Ill. — The idea is simple: Load fresh fruits and vegetables into a refrigerator truck and drive it to a health clinic, then have a doctor write a "prescription" for food to improve the diets of lowincome people with diabetes and high blood pressure. U.S. food banks — the organizations on the front lines of fighting hunger — increasingly are promoting "food as medicine" strategies designed to address, not exacerbate, the high rate of chronic health problems among the poor. One-third of households using food banks are feeding a family member with diabetes, and 58 percent have a family member with high blood pressure, according to a recent survey by Feeding America, a national network of 200 food banks. Meanwhile, 55 percent of people identify fresh fruits and vegetables as the foods they most desire but aren't receiving from their food pantry. "I'm on a very limited income," said James Cline, who has diabetes and gets by on $700 a month living with his mother in suburban Chicago. Disabled after an allterrain vehicle accident, the 53-year-old former loading dock worker knows he should

eat more fresh produce. But the cost of a nutritious diet can be out of reach, so he took his doctor's advice and showed up for a recent produce giveaway at Oak Forest Health Center. "It helps a lot," he said. Since August 2015, six Chicago-area clinics have hosted 26 "Fresh Truck" visits by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, providing more than 100,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables to more than 3,200 households. Nationally, 30 food banks are working directly with health care providers to identify low-income patients who sometimes run out of food. In Idaho, doctors in Boise and Caldwell plan to add small food pantries to their offices. In Delaware, pediatricians write "prescriptions" for fresh produce; a family can get up to 25 pounds each month distributed by the local food bank at clinics. Two hospitals, in Alabama and Florida, collaborated with a Gulf Coast food bank to offer free lunches during the summer to children with hospitalized relatives. "Food banks are trying to do better by providing fewer starches and carbs and more lean proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grains," said Dr. Hilary Seligman, senior medical adviser for Feeding America. "The nutritious

foods that are expensive for our clients are also expensive for food banks. We're figuring out how we can do this and do it better." Seligman is leading a clinical trial to measure if food banks can help people with diabetes improve their blood sugar levels through education and tailored food packages. Researchers have enrolled 572 food pantry clients in Detroit, Houston and Oakland, California. Results are expected in 2018. "If this works, we'll spread it across the Feeding America network, and if it doesn't, we'll try something else," Seligman said. Food banks, whose supplies are stocked through purchases and food donations, have hired dietitians to teach classes. Some are barring donations of sweets. "We don't accept candy. We don't accept soda," said Kim Turner of the Delaware Food Bank. "We want to make sure the foods we're giving to low-income people are the best nutrition possible." Food banks distributed 1.25 billion pounds of fresh produce from July 2015 through June this year. "That's double what it was five years earlier," said Ross Fraser of Feeding America, adding that food banks rescue perishable

AP Photo/Tae-Gyun Kim People line up Sept. 22 to receive fresh produce at Oak Forest Health Center in Oak Forest, Ill. Six health clinics are working with the Chicago food bank to host a mobile pantry filled with fresh produce. The clinics have hosted 26 "Fresh Truck" visits with the Greater Chicago Food Depository since last year, providing more than 100,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to more than 3,200 households. fruits and vegetables with "cosmetic issues" otherwise headed for the trash. "Produce that is too small, too big, too round or not round enough." Growers have answered the call, said Idaho Food Bank CEO Karen Vauk.

"Boy, did they respond," Vauk said. "We have certainly been overwhelmed by the increase in produce. Most of it is right out of the field. And it's not all potatoes. It's peaches and plums. Beautiful produce." Sept. 22, Cline showed a

visitor the bananas, onions, cantaloupe, potatoes, kale and other produce in the box he was taking home. "It's a big help," he said. ___ Follow AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson at https:// twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

Cancer Survivor: Life is never ever normal for a family that has cancer ■ Continued from page 11 field. "(His teammates) actually get something out of this, too. They are giving something to a kid who has kind of had his childhood stripped away from him." During Aiden's extended stays in the hospital — some as long as 45 days in a row — he found comfort in playing with Legos. Without hesitation, Aiden said the coolest Lego creation he has made is the Death Star from Star Wars. He was only strong enough to work on it for about a half hour at a time. It took Aiden about 16 hours to put the 3,802 pieces together. "For me, when I built it, I felt like a normal kid," he explained. "So I want other kids to feel like a normal kid when their going through long treatments of cancer." Aiden looked at his mom one day and said, "Wouldn't it be great if all the kids fighting cancer could have Legos?" His idea soon went into action. People began donating Legos and Gena was ready for the charity — now named Aiden's Legacy —

to take more action. Aiden was ready to make a difference. So in June 2015, he presented a pledge commitment check for $250,000 to the cancer floor at the hospital. As of Sept. 24, Gena said, they have raised around $170,000 and they have four more years to meet the goal. "For him to think about kids in the same situation he's going through, it just speaks volumes of who he is," Gena said. "He has a heart for God, he loves Jesus and Jason and I couldn't be more proud of the little guy that he is." Aiden said his next plan is to line the floors of a part of the hospital with Legos. "We're gonna do it!" Aiden exclaimed. About a year ago, Aiden found out the cancer was in remission. He will still receive check-ups to make sure it is not returning. Later in life, he will need to keep an eye on some of the side effects that six years of chemotherapy have on the body.

Gena said life is never ever normal for a family that has cancer, but this is about as normal as it's been for the Johnson's in awhile. "Now we can plan stuff. How do we do that?" Jason asked. "We're not used to it," Gena added. The little things seem to impact the Johnson's most. During the height of Aiden's battle, the Johnsons said, they couldn't even run to the store for milk. Now they can go out to dinner and plan things out weeks into the future, a luxury many take for granted. The Johnsons will be taking a trip to Disney World in March because Aiden was named the Children's Miracle Network Champion for Kentucky. They said they are hoping to visit the famed Lego Land. Aiden's favorite sport is basketball. He loves the Kentucky Wildcats. His favorite player is former UK star John Wall. Aiden used to do the trendy John Wall dance, but

not any more. It's old. He tried out for the basketball team once and did not make it. "We've put a lot of chemo in that kid's body," Jason said. "He didn't have a whole lot of genes to go with anyway, with me being as short as I am." Playing sports is as fun for Aiden as it is for any other kid. More than anything, he wants to spend time with his friends — something he has not had too much of a chance to do. "Aiden just wants to feel like he's part of the team," Gena Johnson said. "He just wants to be with his buddies." Gena rattled off some of the Aiden's cancer-related statistics before the game to provide some scope on what her son has been through — 893 rounds of chemo, 94 blood transfusions, 14 surgeries and he's lost his hair five times. After the game, a new statistic stands out — one touchdown.

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Research finds talc doesn't cause cancer; juries disagree LINDA A. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer TRENTON, N.J. — Two lawsuits ended in jury verdicts worth $127 million. Two others were tossed out by a judge who said there wasn't reliable evidence that the talc in Johnson & Johnson's iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer. So who's right? And is baby powder safe? Most research finds no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, a practice generations of American mothers have passed on to their daughters. Most major health groups have declared talc harmless. Johnson & Johnson, whose baby powder dominates the market, says it's perfectly safe. Yet some 2,000 women have sued, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts. Meanwhile, jury selection in the next trial began Monday. A look at the issue:

WHAT IS TALC?

Talc is a mineral that is mined from deposits around the world, including the U.S. The softest of minerals, it's crushed into a white powder. It's been widely used in cosmetics and other personal care products to absorb moisture since at least 1894, when Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder was launched. But it's mainly used in a variety of other products, including paint and plastics.

DOES IT CAUSE OVARIAN CANCER?

Like many questions in science, there's no definitive answer. Finding the cause of cancer is difficult. It would be unethical to do the best kind of study, asking a group of women to use talcum powder on their geni-

tals and wait to see if it causes cancer, while comparing them to a group who didn't use it. While ovarian cancer is often fatal, it's relatively rare. It accounts for only about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year. Factors that are known to increase a women's risk of ovarian cancer include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, not having any children, certain genetic mutations and personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

WHAT RESEARCH CAN BE DONE

Two other kinds of research are possible. Neither of them, though, can conclusively prove something causes cancer. One looks back in time, after an illness has occurred. It compares two groups of people, one with the illness, one without, and asks about past exposures that might be factors. But people have trouble remembering details years later. The second approach follows a large group of people. It assesses their health at the start and follows them for years, recording any illnesses while tracking possible influences such as diet and use of medication, alcohol or other substances. Scientists generally find these "prospective" studies most reliable.

WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS

The biggest prospective studies have found no link between talcum powder applied to the genitals and ovarian cancer. But about two dozen smaller, look-back studies over three decades have mostly found a modest connection — a 20 percent to 40 percent increased risk among talc users.

However, that doesn't mean talc causes cancer. Several factors make that unlikely and there's no proof talc, which doesn't interact with chemicals or cells, can travel up the reproductive tract, enter the ovaries and then trigger cancer. One large study published in June that followed 51,000 sisters of breast cancer patients found genital talc users had a reduced risk of ovarian cancer, 27 percent lower than in nonusers. An analysis of two huge, longrunning U.S. studies, the Women's Health Initiative and the Nurses' Health Study, showed no increased risk of ovarian cancer in talc users.

WHAT EXPERTS SAY

If there were a true link, Dr. Hal C. Lawrence III says large studies that tracked women's health for years would have verified results of the smaller look-back ones. "Lord knows, with the amount of powder that's been applied to babies' bottoms, we would've seen something" if talc caused cancer, said Lawrence, vice president of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The National Cancer Institute's Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen says the federal agency's position is that there's not a clear connection. "It is very hard to establish causal relationships," he said, adding, "A lot of ovarian cancers occur in women who have never used talc, and many women have used talc and not gotten ovarian cancer." Research director Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society says it is unusual to have so much discrepancy between studies. "The risk for any individual woman, if there is one, is probably very small," Ward said.

WHAT LAWYERS AND COURTS SAY

Like the studies, courts have produced mixed results. In the first trial two years ago, a South Dakota jury found Johnson & Johnson liable for one woman's ovarian cancer but didn't award any damages. This year, state court juries in St. Louis awarded plaintiffs $72 million and $55 million — verdicts the company is appealing. But U.S. District Judge Nelson Johnson in Atlantic City threw out the first two of the 400 lawsuits in his court. He reviewed the research and testimony from two doctors who are the plaintiffs' key expert witnesses and concluded the two aren't reliable, noting they had previously written that there was no proof talc causes ovarian cancer. Other courts approved them as experts, noted the plaintiffs' attorney, Ted Meadows of Montgomery, Alabama. J&J attorney John Beisner says the health care giant plans to fight every lawsuit, rather than settle, "for the fundamental reason that the science on which they're based is totally lacking." Most of the pending cases are in Missouri, California and New Jersey, where J&J is based. In the case that began Sept. 26 in St. Louis, lawyers for Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California, say she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 after years of talcum use. Her lawsuit accuses the company of "negligent conduct" in making and marketing its talc. ___ Follow Linda A. Johnson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lindaj_onpharma.

Two-time cancer survivor joins football team, scores JUSTIN MASKULINSKI News and Tribune SELLERSBURG, Ind. (AP) — The Silver Creek West Dragons youth football team runs a play called 121 Power. It is a fairly common play in the Wing-T offense and they run it often. The play was a special part of the game Sept. 24 against Scottsburg because of not only the result, but the person who was carrying the ball. Aiden Johnson, 12, has beaten cancer twice. He joined the Dragons on the field in the game and ran the ball on 121 Power. It's a play he won't soon forget. "I can't believe it," he said. "I was here for another game, once but I didn't play." One of Aiden's coaches, Jeff Dickson, said the coaching staff combined for the idea of getting Aiden into the game to score. "We made him a part of the team," Dickson said. "We felt it was a good thing to do." Dickson and the other coaches introduced Aiden to the team at the Sept. 22 practice. Many of them already knew him from

school. Aiden's father, Jason Johnson, told his son's story to the team. "We told the players the idea of what we wanted to do and they were super excited," Dickson said. When the Dragons coaches approached Scottsburg with the idea, they agreed immediately. "We were talking about it today and there was no hesitation. We're all for it," Scottsburg coach Jason Reynolds said. "It's a valuable life lesson. It's about letting them know that now matter what happens in life, sometimes it all depends on how you act." When Aiden Johnson walks around smiling with his spiked brown hair, people wouldn't know it, but he has overcome so much. Much more than the average 12-yearold should have to. Aiden was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was 3 years old. His mother, Gena, took him to the hospital when she noticed some swelling in his neck. The aftermath of that doctor's visit has

shaped the last nine years for the Johnson family. "(Aiden) has taught me to never take life for granted," Gena Johnson said. "Things can change in an instant with cancer. Just because you're doing good with it today doesn't mean when you wake tomorrow you're doing good with it. You never take life for granted." Jason said his son's battle has given him a new perspective on life. "For me, the blinders have come off," Jason Johnson said. "You think you're headed in one direction and this happens to you. The world just stops. Then all of the sudden it's just day-by-day life. You don't sweat the small stuff." Aiden beat cancer for the first time on his sixth birthday. About two years later, he was at a camp and he had some bruising when he returned. Another doctor's visit confirmed what Gena and Jason feared — the cancer was back. "This whole battle has taught us to be

kinder to people and appreciate life in general," Gena said. "Smile to everybody because you don't know what their battles are. He has taught me joy." During much of Aiden's battle, he was either in the hospital or isolated at home. Aiden referred to the isolation as "the bubble." When he was at his sickest, he was only allowed to be with his family because even a common cold could have ended his life. Gena said the neighborhood kids would come over and ask if Aiden could play, but she had to tell them he was too sick. "When those kids would come knocking on the door and I'd say, 'He can't play today,' Aiden was disappointed, but they were just as disappointed," she said while holding back tears. Aiden has impacted his parents a great deal. He also impacted his teammates Sept. 24. "It's an honor to be able to watch him do this," Jason said before his son took the

■ See Cancer Survivor Page 11

Havre Daily News/Hi-Line Shopper and then with the change in leadership — new chancellor — he wasn’t in on the whole conversation from the start, so he didn’t feel comfortable with it and the board of regents denied it,” Smith said. Bullhook submitted a new proposal to buy the property where the new clinic is located, on the 500 Block of Fourth Street across from City Hall, which Health and Human Services approved. “So we went back to Congress and said, ‘Hey, we found some land. We can build here — we can make it even better,’” Smith said. “‘It’s within walking distance for everybody, we’re going to put all our services in there. It makes more sense to do it here.’” Additional funds were obtained including through new market tax credits financing, raising the total budget to $7.2 million. A groundbreaking ceremony was held July 12, 2013, and the clinic opened to serve patients July 21, 2014. “In our new building we added the pharmacy and the mental health building,” Smith said. From 2004 to now, Bullhook has grown to 77 employees — Smith said they have added about 20 just in the last year alone. The employee roster insludes four medical providers, one of whom is in training to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner, three mental health counselors, three addiction counselors and one in-home behavioral specialist. Smith said that in the last year alone, about 4,500 patients have gone through

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Bullhook, adding up to more than 10,000 visits. That number is expected to rise she said. Bullhook partners with various organizations and groups in Hill County. “We’re still at the Hill County Health Consortium; we do the Child Find with the Early Childhood Investment Team, we go to the schools and do assessments for kids for their oral health needs. ... We go to the detention center — one of our providers goes there to see our clients, if they need medical care … we also provide mental health and addiction screenings,” Smith said. “We have a counselor in the high school as well — she’s in there part time right now. We hope to expand that to full-time. And we’re a member of drug court.” Now that the clinic has the building, and the staff, Smith said, she sees quality improvements at Bullhook as the next project. “We want to focus on quality improvement for awhile, improving the services that we already provide,” she said. As for her future as CEO, Smith wants to keep the focus on the clinic. “Life always changes, so you never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “But the board of directors is my bosses, so hopefully if I continue to do a good job, they’ll ask me to continue to be their CEO. “We’re just trying to make sure we have everything in place,” she said, “so that it does continue on, no matter who’s at the leadership.”

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Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Kallie Larson staffs the reception desk Wednesday, Sept. 21, at Bullhook Community Health Center.

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Wellness Center offers lots of possibilities Alex Ross aeross@havredailynews.com

Fitness buffs from communities in north-central Montana have a spot on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation where people can get a good workout free of charge. India Blatt, fitness director at the Chippewa Cree Wellness Center, said the facility, which was opened in 2006, was established “to provide a way for the community to become healthier and bring down costs with health care.” Construction of the $2.9 million facility at 535 Clinic Road East was paid for with $1.8 million from the tribe, as well as $1.1 million in grants from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S Department of Agriculture. No fees or membership charges are paid by patrons, whether they live on or off the reservation, Blatt said. Instead, the center is maintained with money from a two percent fee tribal employers pay to the center per employee. Though it is open from people from both on and off the reserva-

tion, Native and non-Native, Blatt said the bulk of the 80 to 130 people who come into the fitness center

each day either live on the reservation or are employees of the tribe. “We get a couple who come out

to swim, like when the Havre pool closes,” she said. The center boasts a basketball

court, an indoor walking track and an indoor swimming pool as deep as 5 feet. A weight room is furnished with between 20 and 30 machines which include treadmills, stair climbers, ellipticals, tread climbers, a rowing machine, squat rack and dumbbells. The center has both men’s and women’s locker rooms. Blatt said five or six showers are located in the women’s locker room and one group shower in the men’s locker room. Both locker rooms are equipped with a hot tub and sauna. Instructional videos and a television are available for in-center use by people who want to use workout routines like Focus T25 and Insanity Max 3, Blatt said. Every Wednesday, Damon Parrotte, a physical therapist and the co-owner of Physical Fitness Down Under in Havre, is at the center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. People who want to see Parrotte must do so by

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Chippewa Cree Welness Center is located on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

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Mother uncovers lasting impact of son's organ donation LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON — An ultrasound showed one of Sarah Gray's unborn twins was missing part of his brain, a fatal birth defect. His brother was born healthy but Thomas lived just six days. Latching onto hope for something positive to come from heartache, Gray donated some of Thomas' tissue for scientific research — his eyes, his liver, his umbilical cord blood. Only no one could tell the Washington mother if that precious donation really made a difference. So Gray embarked on an unusual journey to find out, revealing a side of science that laymen seldom glimpse. "Infant eyes are like gold," a Harvard scientist told her. "I don't think people understand how valuable these donations are," said Gray, who hadn't grasped this either until her years-long quest brought her face-to-face with startled scientists. They had never met a relative of the donors so crucial to their work. Families often find comfort in learning how many lives were saved if they donated a loved one's organs for transplant. But donating a body for research gets less attention — there are no headline-making "saves." Yet critical medical research in labs around the country depends on scientists' ability to work with human cells and organs, so they can study both normal development and how disease does its dirty work. "A lot of people, if the tissue doesn't get used for transplant, they think it's kind of second-rate tissue or something. I'd like them to know that people who do research with human tissue are doing worthwhile things that are going to, hopefully, lead to cures for all kinds of diseases," said Dr. James Zieske, a corneal specialist at Harvard and the Schepens Eye Research Institute, whose description of treasured infant eyes spurred Gray's hunt. Now, hoping to help other families facing decisions about donation, Gray has written a book, "A Life Everlasting, The Extraordinary Story of One Boy's Gift to Medical Science." Gray and two of the scientists she met in her quest spoke with The Associated Press about donation for research.

NEONATAL DONATIONS OF ANY TYPE ARE RARE

Gray's obstetrician didn't think donation was an option for a baby with this birth defect, called anencephaly. Only when Gray persisted late in pregnancy did she learn, from the Washington area's organ procure-

AP Photo/Rick Gentilo In this frame grab from video, Sarah Gray with her son Callum, 6, and infant daughter, Jocelyn, sit together Sept. 14 in their Washington home. Callum’s identical twin, Thomas, died of a birth defect when he was just 6 days old, and the family donated Thomas’ eyes, liver and umbilical cord blood for medical research. Now Gray has written a book about her unusual journey to find out if that donation really made a difference, revealing a side of science laymen seldom glimpse. ment agency, that her baby's organs probably would be too small for transplant but that donation for research was an option. Statistics from the United Network for Organ Sharing show that organs from a dozen newborns, those younger than a month old, were donated last year for transplant. On the research front, Dr. Arupa Ganguly of the University of Pennsylvania studies retinoblastoma, eye cancer that attacks young children. Before receiving Thomas' tissue, she had waited six years for donation of a healthy young retina to compare with diseased ones. Cells taken from younger tissue typically grow much better than an adult's, said Zieske, who could recall receiving infant corneas only two or three times in his career. Thomas' corneas were ordered to study how to repair blindness-inducing corneal damage.

MOST ANY TISSUE CAN BE USED

In recovering tissue from deceased donors, hospitals consult a national registry of

researchers' current needs. On that day in 2010, Thomas died at home in his father's arms. The organ agency retrieved his body, and recovered his eyes and liver. Blood from the umbilical cords of both Thomas and his healthy identical twin Callum already had been shipped to Duke University researchers studying what causes anencephaly.

WAS THE RESEARCH WORTHWHILE?

Two years later, all Gray knew was where Thomas' tissue had been shipped. So during a business trip to Boston, she called the Harvard-affiliated eye lab, identified herself as a donor mom, and asked for a tour — a first for the lab, and one that changed the scientists' perspective. "I still think more about, when we get a donated cornea, who that came from," said Zieske. Eventually Gray visited each lab that procured and handled Thomas' tissue. A North Carolina biotechnology company, Cytonet, uses liver cells in researching treatment for babies awaiting a liver transplant. Penn's Ganguly froze some retinal tissue for future work. Callum, now 6, even started coming along. "We explained to him there are some special scientists there working on helping other people, and they're using some stuff from Thomas to help them," said his father, Ross Gray. "We always get a sample, but we don't see the person behind that sample," Ganguly said. "The lab has really established a bond with that family. And I think it makes the work a lot more meaningful."

THE JOURNEY ISN'T OVER

Gray changed careers to work for the nonprofit American Association of Tissue Banks. That brought her to a meeting where scientists debated if it was ethical to test a new technology — gene editing — to fight inherited diseases. "If you have the skills and the knowledge to fix these diseases then freaking do it," she told the group, recounting how Thomas had suffered seizures each day of his brief life. And when Gray recently had a new baby, daughter Jocelyn, she donated the placenta for wound-healing therapy. She'd like to visit that lab, too.

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appointment. The center has six full-time employees and one temporary worker, Blatt said. She said these include monitors who help patrons, a maintenance worker and a personal trainer certified through the International Sports Science Association who also does CPR training. Within the next month, she said, the trainer will be certified to work with the older population. “Our plan is for him to work with elders in their homes on strength and balance,” Blatt said. She said that all the services the trainer provides are free and that within the next month another person will be working toward their certification, too. Blatt said that, ideally, she would like to

Family Medical Center: ■ Continued from page 6 area and desk and then shoots off into different locations for different specialties. The new space this has afforded also means more personnel. Along with the three family practitioners and the fourth to come, two OB/GYNs also practice in the center. More nurse practitioners and physician assistants are on staff and one OB/GYN nurse practitioner also practice there. Henry said if patients can’t get in to see their physician, they can see a physician's

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assistant or nurse practitioner rather than rescheduling. The offices’ receptionist and scheduling duties used to be combined, whereas now they are separate. This creates better, faster service because previously people in one area would have to do both tasks instead of concentrating on one of them, Henry said. “I think the building is just more efficient,” Henry said. “We can see more people in a smaller amount of time.”

HEALTH GUIDE have one trainer work during the day and another in the evening. The Wellness Center provides a place for fitness activities for the reservation’s sports teams. Blatt said the center’s basketball court is regularly used by Rocky Boy High School's junior varsity basketball team for practice and Rocky Boy Middle School for their junior high jamborees. Blatt said that, in the future, she would like the center to offer more fitness classes on the weekend and in the evenings, depending on demand. The Wellness Center’s hours are Monday through Thursday 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Friday 6 a.m. to 4 p.m and Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Caitlyn Gamble practices shooting baskets Monday afternoon.

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Receptionists Sydne Huston, left, and Lauren Britt work at the front desk of Northern Montana Family Medical Center.

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten The new front desk of Northern Montana Family Medical Center.

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten A patron uses an elliptical machine at the Chippewa Cree Wellness Center Monday afternoon.

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Family Medical Center improves care, efficiency Alex Ross aeross@havredailynews.com In the two years since it opened, Northern Montana Family Medical Center has changed the way Northern Montana Hospital provides care to women and families. Dave Henry, CEO and president of Northern Montana Healthcare, said that before the center was established, the hospital’s family practitioners were on opposite sides of the campus in what were then the East and West clinics. Henry said the East Clinic had fallen into disrepair. Rather than construct a new building to house those offices, they decided to remodel an existing facility on the southeast portion of the hospital campus near Northern Montana Hospital Park. The original facility was built in the 1990s had been used as an inpatient chemical dependency treatment center but had gone unused after chemical dependency programs became outpatient. "So we had a building that was virtually empty,” Henry said. The old facility was gutted and everything other than the roof and walls were rebuilt in the $5 million project. The family practitioners were brought over from both the east and west clinic and housed in the renovated 15,000 square foot building.

A second-floor hallway connects the Family Medical Center to the hospital. The medical care center has three family practice physicians and will soon have a fourth. The hospital’s OB/GYN providers have also been moved into the new facility. The West Clinic is now used for orthopedic surgery and internal medicine care such as psychology, podiatry and special services. Henry said OB/GYNs and family doctors are now closer to the main hospital. He said that formerly family practitioners would have to go across the parking lot to the main hospital to deliver a baby. Now they just go up a hallway. “That has a great advantage from a patient standpoint because the physician gets here sooner and there is less disruption,” Henry said. Families now can go to the center to get physicals, vaccinations and have blood drawn. The medical center has a draw station and clinical laboratory where blood can be drawn and sent through a pneumatic tube system to the hospital’s main lab for testing, Henry said. The center is organized in a pod model rather than traditional offices. Henry said that a pod model has a centralized reception

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The front entrance to Northerm Montana Family Medical Center awaits patients in Havre.