News Roundup

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Jeffrey D. Quinlan, MD, FAAFP

United States Navy Captain Jeffrey D. Quinlan, MD, FAAFP, has been named chair and departmental executive officer of the Department of Family Medicine in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

Quinlan will begin on Oct. 15 after completing a 28-year career in the U.S. Navy. 

“I am very proud to be joining University of Iowa Health Care, which was one of the early adopters of the specialty of family medicine,” Quinlan says. “Their reputation as a leader continues, and I’m excited to join them in addressing state and national needs in maternal health, rural health, and the undersupply of primary care providers."

Quinlan’s clinical, teaching, and research interests focus on women’s health and maternity care. He is internationally recognized for his work with the American Academy of Family Physician Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics program, which is an evidence-based, multidisciplinary training program that gives primary care providers the skills to effectively manage obstetric emergencies, ensure patient safety, and positively impact maternal outcomes.

University of Iowa Health Care recently filled key positions in the areas of growth, compliance, children’s hospital leadership, and collegiate administration.

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Timothy Y. Kan, MBA, MA

Timothy Y. Kan, MBA, MA, joined UI Health Care as chief growth officer in November 2019. In partnership with clinical department leaders, Kan leads services growth across UI Health Care with a focus on creating an integrated system of care.

With more than 20 years of experience in enterprise and service line strategy, organizational integration, and performance improvement, Kan most recently served as a director at Navigant Consulting, where he led the firm’s strategy practice in its west region.

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Christine Bachrach, CHC-F

In March 2020, Christine Bachrach, CHC-F, joined UI Health Care as chief compliance officer. She oversees the organization’s compliance program, which includes adherence with federal, state, and local regulatory requirements as well as internal policies, procedures, and standards.

Bachrach has nearly 30 years of related health care experience. Before coming to Iowa, she served as chief compliance officer for the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore.

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Pamela Johnson-Carlson, DNP, RN, NE-BC

Pamela Johnson-Carlson, DNP, RN, NE-BC, began as chief administrative officer of UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital in April 2020. In her new role, Johnson-Carlson provides oversight and direction in the planning, organization, and administration of daily operations at the children’s hospital.

Johnson-Carlson has been dedicated to pediatric care throughout her career. Before joining UI Health Care, she served as vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs. She has also held leadership roles at children’s hospitals in Arizona and Nebraska.

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Gerard Clancy, MD

Gerard Clancy (88MD, 92R), will return to UI Health Care in June 2020 as senior associate dean for external affairs in the UI Carver College of Medicine. He will focus on legislative and health policy issues, collaborations with the Iowa business community, and philanthropy initiatives. His faculty appointment will be in the UI Department of Psychiatry.

A faculty member at Iowa from 1995-2001, Clancy is a professor of psychiatry and community medicine and the immediate past president of the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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University of Iowa Rehabilitation Hospital rendering

A new 40-bed hospital—University of Iowa Health Network Rehabilitation Hospital, a venture with Encompass Health—is scheduled to open in summer 2020.

Located at the southwest corner of Oakdale Boulevard and Coral Court in Coralville, the Iowa rehabilitation hospital will serve patients recovering from a variety of debilitating illnesses and injuries, including strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations, and complex orthopedic conditions. It will offer physical, occupational, and speech therapies as well as 24-hour nursing care.

University of Iowa Health System, a nonprofit that supports the clinical, academic, and research programs of University of Iowa Health Care, has entered into an agreement with Encompass Health Corp. to jointly own the freestanding hospital.

Conventional wisdom says that having just one mutated copy of the cystic fibrosis gene has no effects on a person’s health—the disease occurs when both copies of the gene are mutated. But a new University of Iowa study suggests that may not be the case.

The research, published in the journal PNAS, found that people with one mutated copy of the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene, sometimes called CF carriers, are at increased risk for all of the conditions that affect people with the disease.

Importantly, although the relative risk is higher, the study shows that the absolute risk—the likelihood of a CF carrier getting many of these conditions—is still very low. However, because more than 10 million Americans are CF carriers, the new findings suggest that the amount of illness caused by CF-related conditions could be substantial.

“CF carriers are nowhere near as at-risk as patients with CF,” says Philip Polgreen, MD (00R, 02F, 04F), UI professor of internal medicine and epidemiology and senior author on the study. “But compared to people with no CF mutations, they have a slightly higher risk for some diseases.”

Some previous reports have linked being a CF carrier with an increased risk for some CF-related conditions, like pancreatitis, male infertility, and airway infections. The new study shows that CF carriers also have an increased risk for other CF-related conditions, including Type 1 diabetes, gastrointestinal cancer, and newborn failure to thrive.