Tennessee Health Leaders Visit UT Health Sciences for ‘Conversation Among Partners’

"It is good to be here and partner with you," Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner John Dunn, DVM, PhD, said during a visit to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Memphis campus Thursday, Dec. 11.

Commissioner Dunn and members of his leadership team came to Memphis to officially present three rural health grants to faculty members at the university, and to learn about the efforts underway to care for the people of Tennessee, thanks to the funding from the Tennessee Department of Health.

They were joined by Shelby County Health Department Director Bruce Randolph, MD, and leaders of his team, as well as TennCare Deputy Director Drew Staniewski.

"There are lots of connections for me," Commissioner Dunn said proudly, referring to UT Health Science Center. He said his daughter and brother earned their medical degrees from UT Health Sciences. Another daughter earned her degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The commissioner spoke of Gov. Bill Lee's passion for health and health care. He said his department is carrying out "the administration's intent about improving the health of Tennesseans."

JW Randolph, MPH, deputy commissioner for Health Strategy and Regulation, spoke about state's Rural Health Transformation Program application for millions in federal funding for Tennessee.

"We can be proud that Tennessee has put in a really substantial proposal," said UT Health Science Center Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD.

In August, the Tennessee Department of Health designated UT Health Science Center as the Tennessee Rural Health Care Center of Excellence and awarded the university a $12 million grant to lead a four-year initiative to help close the gaps driving differences in health outcomes for rural Tennesseans.

Wendy Likes, PhD, DNSc, APRN-BC, dean of the College of Nursing and executive director and special advisor on rural health for the university, is leading the initiative, along with Jim Bailey, MD, professor in the College of Medicine and the executive director of the Tennessee Population Health Consortium. Dr. Likes expressed gratitude to the commissioner and the department for the Center of Excellence designation, which stands to have a major impact on the health of residents of Tennessee.

At the meeting, Commissioner Dunn and the Tennessee Department of Health leaders brought presentation checks for three grants from the Rural Health Care Resiliency Program to UT Health Sciences faculty members. The rural health grants include: $3.7 million to expand mobile health capacity, $1 million to increase primary care health coaching at rural health hubs, and $2.8 million for research to improve adherence to radiation therapy for cancer patients.

Faculty members from the Colleges of Nursing and Medicine explained the vital work the grants are funding.

Tennessee Commissioner of Health John Dunn, second from left, and his team presented a symbolic check for $3.7 million to Dr. Diana Dedmon from the College of Nursing to support expansion of rural mobile health efforts in Hardeman and Haywood counties.

"I'm a rural girl," said Diana Dedmon, DNP, APRN, associate professor and director of Clinical Affairs in the College of Nursing and the principal on the mobile health grant. She explained how the grant will expand primary care rural health mobile services in West Tennessee, which currently serve Lake and Lauderdale counties. A second van will be added to serve Hardeman and Haywood counties and provide women's health services one day a month in Dyer County.

"We go where the patients are," she said. "We develop trusting relationships."

Dr. Jim Bailey and the Tennessee Population Health Consortium received funds to support establishing health hubs in extension offices in and Decatur counties.

Dr. Bailey, the principal on the rural health hub grant, spoke about the work of the consortium, which has been providing population health analytics in an effort to close the gap in health care accessibility across Tennessee.

The grant will fund rural health hubs in Hardin and Decatur counties operated in collaboration with UT Extension. The UT Extension Rural Health Hubs initiative will place health coaches at extension offices in the counties to bring essential primary and preventive health care to those who have limited options in their rural communities.

"The hubs employ people from the community to extend primary care into our shortage areas for essential preventive care," Dr. Bailey said. "We empower residents to take care of their own health, and we connect people to medical, behavioral health, and social care they need most."

A team led by David Schwartz, MD, received $2.8 million to continue researching methods to improve adherence to radiation therapy among patients in rural areas.

David Schwartz, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, spoke about how the grant supports research being done using AI to identify and address barriers to quality cancer care. The research has been a key technical step leading to the opening of clinical trials in UT Health Sciences' Department of Radiation Oncology that are currently enrolling participants.

The trials will test the impact of the ENRICH (Equitable Needs-based Radiotherapy Interruption Care for Health) platform, which integrates AI-driven analytics with community-based human support to overcome social barriers that lead to treatment interruptions, a preventable driver of cancer mortality.

"I'd like to express my gratitude for the Health Department's vision," Dr. Schwartz said. "Through their support, we're building America's first AI platform to connect cancer patients to resources in their community."

Following the presentations, the visitors toured the Delta Dental of Tennessee Building. The tour was led by College of Dentistry Dean Ken Tilashalski, DMD. The $45 million, state-of-the-art building, which opened in 2023, was funded through generous public/private sponsorship, including more than $7 million from Delta Dental of Tennessee.

The College of Dentistry, in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Health, is leading a $53 million, five-year project to increase access to dentists and dental care across Tennessee, with a focus on the rural areas with the most need. 

Funded by the state, the Healthy Smiles Initiative is a multipronged approach to tackling the current shortage of dentists in Tennessee and improving health across the state by making dental care more readily available. The Tennessee Department of Health has committed a total of $94 million for the overall statewide Healthy Smiles oral health effort. Delta Dental and many other outstanding community partners have joined the initiative.

After the tour, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Raaj Kurapati gave the group an overview of the $350 College of Medicine Interprofessional Building proposed for the Memphis campus.

He provided an overview of the existing space in the Madison Plaza Building, which was built in the 1960s and was not designed for an academic medical institution.

"We have made the best use of the space," Kurapati said. "If we are not able to provide the type of space that our students want to learn in, we're competing with the best across the county, and we will have a very difficult time recruiting and retaining students, faculty, and staff that support them."

"I would like to express my thank you to Governor Lee's administration and the Legislature, especially the Lt. Governor, who helped us with an amendment in the last budget cycle to start the planning and the design process for this," he said. "Because of that amendment, we are well along the way toward getting this to shovel-ready should funding be made available for the full project this budget cycle."

"This is important for many reasons, but not the least is it shaved off almost 18 months of construction time on this project," Kurapati continued. "It also saves us about 4% of the total project, because time is money." He said if the funds for the building are approved in the upcoming budget cycle, the goal is for the building ready for occupancy for the fall semester of 2029. The new building is expected to allow the College of Medicine to grow its MD class by 30% and its Physicians Assistant class by 100%. It will also house the College of Health Professions and the College of Graduate Health Sciences, and will allow for greater interprofessional learning opportunities for all Health Science Center students."

Chancellor Buckley closed the meeting, thanking the leaders for coming to the university. "We feel we've been very privileged to have so much of your time," he said. "We have had a good dialogue."

"I think it's a great conversation, and I look at it as a conversation among partners," Commissioner Dunn said.