Ahead of this years opening of the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, the school is launching the Burrell Institute for Health Policy and Research.
Dan Burrell, Chairman of the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine says the new Institute for Health Policy and Research will help study ways to improve the health problems in the border region, and how everyone can have access to high quality care.
“We want to begin the process of really starting to analyze why that is the case,” Burrell said. “It’s everything from a lack of physicians, it’s from a lack of understanding about how you deal with a big geographic area in New Mexico, but with a small population with many rural and underserved communities. It’s about how we engage our hospitals to get into those communities, and how we begin to deliver physicians to them as well.
Founding Dean of the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine George Mychaskiw says the institute will help the medical students learn how to become better physicians and understand the problems the community faces.
“The students will see what our legislators deal with,” Mychaskiw said. “And they’ll see a bigger picture of healthcare beyond just someone they see in an emergency room or a clinic. They’ll get to learn and see about the whole system of healthcare and how it affects a system of people, and a large population of people, and they’ll be better physicians because of it.”
The institute is hoping to work with both national and state governments in the region, as well as with Mexico to research specific health problems on the border. Chancellor of New Mexico State University Garrey Carruthers is excited about the opportunities this will bring to NMSU.
“Even though we don’t own the institute,” Carruthers said. “They are going to be able to affiliate with some of our faculty members and students in doing public policy work.”
Director of the Burrell Institute for Health Policy and Research Hugo Vilchis, says they plan on looking at many health problems in the border region to come up with local solutions.
“We have a big issue with obesity,” Vilchis said. “Locally, we need to work with the schools, we need to work with what kind of food is available at the schools for the kids, we need to change these policies, so we need to analyze that.”
The Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine is set to open this fall, but Dan Burrell says work at the Institute for Health Policy and Research will begin right away.
