Ilula Conference view from John Kvasnicka

Monday January 26: 

We completed our second annual Ilula Minnesota International Medical Conference last week on Thursday and Friday.  We had almost 100 people in attendance.  Each of the 28 Southern Zone hospitals was invited to send one practicing physician, one nurse and one pharmacist.  We moved the location of the conference to Iringa this year to accommodate the larger audience. We are in the process of compiling the feedback from the evolutions, but the initial informal feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, both from attendees and presenters.

The design of our conference is based on several principles.  First is the importance of lifelong learning.  One of the central themes of the trip is the importance of learning and teaching, and the conference is one important part of that theme.  A second principle is interprofessional teamwork and learning.  We include pharmacy, nursing and physicians together for the vast majority of the conference, and discuss principles of interprofessional teamwork throughout.  A third principle is respect for our different cultures and medical practices.  We come together to learn from each other and teach each other the best practices from our respective practices.  The final principle is continuous improvement.  We include workshops in the content of the course where disciplines come together and develop specific plans to initiate improvement projects when they return home based on what they have learned at the conference.

I would like to thank several people and groups who made the conference possible.  First our generous sponsors: The King Family Foundation, Global Health Ministries, Norrie Thomas and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Dale and Patty Anderson, Arlene and Dave Tourville, and anonymous donors.  I would also like to thank fellow Course Directors Drs. Mfwimi Saga and Ken Olson, Shoulder to Shoulder founders Randy Hurley and Gary Moody, CME sponsor the HealthEast Care System, and all the presenters for all their hard work and critical contributions.

We believe that fostering leaning through the conference principles is one of the important ways we can improve the health of the population in and around Ilula. 

John Kvasnicka

Dr. Theo presenting, even though this was his day to have GI distress

Linda's interactive Nutrition talk

Grateful Farewell from Conference Participants