he first tangible initiative of this university’s collaborative partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore, health professionals from UMB spoke to a small crowd of students last night about the educational and career options students have in the health care profession.

About 30 university students in the Biosciences Research Building attended the first university-hosted health care panel, which university officials plan to hold annually to strengthen its strategic alliance with UMB that the General Assembly and the Board of Regents – the 17-member governing board of the University System of Maryland – approved this semester.

“We have big ideas, big dreams, and in some ways this is kind of the kickoff event, the first leadoff event for students in this new collaboration,” said undergraduate studies Dean Donna Hamilton.

Assistant Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs Flavius Lilly said the progress being made daily in the health care industry provides students with even more opportunities to pursue careers in a variety of health fields.

“The vision of interprofessional health teams is really beginning to take shape at the University of Maryland and the Medical Center, and it’s beginning to be integrated into practice,” he said.

School of nursing assistant professor Cynthia Renn presented students with information about research in UMB’s Center for Pain Studies, an NIH-funded collaborative center, including a study researchers hope will point to key moments in patients’ treatment where physicians can prevent or minimize side effects.

“It’s an exciting time with this center, and we’re making a lot of progress with our studies,” Renn said. “So this is an example of how one school on campus can head up a project, but it’s very collaborative.”

However, UMB School of Medicine Associate Dean David Mallott said that the changing face of the health care industry may pose some students a challenge.

“You have to be able to play well with others in the sandbox, and that’s one of the things we’re quite frankly testing with this new emphasis on interdisciplinary care,” he said.

Senior cell biology and molecular genetics major Abby Figat, asked how members of complicated health care teams prevent things from being “lost in translation, like a game of telephone.”

Pharmacy school professor Kathleen Pincus said her practice constantly works to keep communication clear to prevent valuable information from falling through the cracks.

“They say some of the most important things are to have clearly defined roles and clear communication,” she said. “I think at our practice, that’s something we’re still working on,” Pincus said.

In addition, several of the speakers also referenced the potential for physicians to work with professionals in other fields.

For example, lawyers and physicians should collaborate to shift focus from quantity of patients to quality of care by developing a different model for how health care professionals are paid, Pincus said.

Kathleen Dachille – a professor at UMB’s law school and is “one of the good lawyers,” she said – discusses the intersection of public health policy and the law, such as work to update clinical guidelines that impact the legal “insanity defense,” or the public health policy regarding using medical marijuana.

“What my students are working on are, what are the public health implications of what would more liberally allow people to use medical marijuana?” she said. “We’re looking at the big picture medical health questions of, if medical marijuana is legalized, we might need to change some other laws.”

Figat said she would have liked to have seen even more panelists present, such as a global health expert. However, some said they were pleased with the panelists chosen for the first-ever event.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” junior global health policy major Gloribel Le said. “It was interesting to hear about the different specialties.”

lurye@umdbk.com