The Board of Regents held its
sixth meeting of the year Thursday
afternoon to hear from public com-
menters urging the University of
Michigan to consider student input
on administrative decisions and to
continue expanding plans for an in-
residence academic year.
All Regents, except Regent Kath-
erine White (D), and University
executive officers were present for
the meeting. This was the first
meeting in which Regents Denise
Ilitch (D) and Jordan Acker (D)
served as chair and vice chair of the
board.
During
the
regular
agenda,
University President Mark Schlis-
sel announced he was appointing
Susan M. Collins to the position
of University Provost and Execu-
tive Vice President for Academic
Affairs. Collins began serving as
acting Provost, and later interim
Provost, shortly after former Pro-
vost Martin Philbert was placed
on administrative leave and later
removed amid allegations of sexual
misconduct.
Schlissel also commented on the
recently mandated facemask policy,
which requires everyone on campus
grounds to wear a face covering.
“The research is clear that wear-
ing a face covering is one of the
most effective tools we have for
preventing the spread of COVID-
19 and saving lives,” Schlissel said.
“It’s difficult to maintain distance
from groups even when outdoors on
a busy University campus, and so,
face coverings outdoors will help
slow the spread of the virus as well.”
Schlissel said he was pleased to
hear the Department of Homeland
Security policy that required inter-
national students taking exclusively
online classes to leave the U.S. was
revoked, meaning international stu-
dents will be permitted to remain
in the country if their classes are all
remote. He referenced the amicus
brief the University filed in support
of Harvard University and Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology’s
lawsuit to block the regulation.
“International
students
are
core members of our institutions,”
Schlissel said. “They make valuable
contributions in our classrooms,
campuses and communities, con-
tributions that have helped make
American education the envy of
the world. International students
contribute to a diversity of thought
background and experience that
promotes learning outcomes and
better prepares students for an
increasingly diverse workforce and
society. We strongly disagree with
arbitrary restrictions on interna-
tional students that might force
them to risk their health in order to
continue their studies.”
Twelve members from the Uni-
versity community were permit-
ted to address the regents during
the public comment portion of the
event. The speakers discussed the
idea of student representation on
the board, plans for the upcoming
in-person semester and efforts to
provide adequate funding to the
Flint and Dearborn campuses.
During the June 29 special
Regents meeting, University Presi-
dent Mark Schlissel announced
the Flint and Dearborn campuses
would receive a shared $20 million
fund, double the $10 million that
was previously allocated in the bud-
get presented at the June 25 meet-
ing.
Engineering Junior Labiba Qazi,
vice president of Dearborn Stu-
dent Government and member of
One University, an organization
advocating for equitable funding
at the University’s three campuses,
argued for transparency with the
designated resources. Qazi empha-
sized the University should use
the funding to prioritize students’
needs. She referred to a May 2020
proposal published by 1U that called
on the administration to extend the
Go Blue Guarantee and Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion initiatives to
Dearborn and Flint.
3
Thursday, July 23, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
Adrienne Lapidos commuted
to her office for work before the
COVID-19 pandemic began in
Michigan. But like many oth-
ers over the past several months,
she transitioned to working from
home. As a clinical assistant pro-
fessor of psychiatry at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, Lapidos now
primarily sees her patients via
video visits instead of in-person.
Though urgent cases are still
seen in-person, Lapidos’ depart-
ment shifted to majority telemedi-
cine in late March. She told The
Daily the change was unexpected.
“It pretty much caught all of us
by surprise how quickly the tran-
sition happened from in-person
to video visits,” Lapidos said. “It
had been a really major goal to
increase uptake of video visits this
year, but adoption was not wide-
spread until after COVID started.”
Steven Leber, Medical Doctor
and professor of pediatrics and
neurology, said video visits are
advantageous to patients in selec-
tive cases where transportation is
a barrier. Leber added moving to
video visits also helps with social
distancing guidelines.
“Because of social distancing,
we’re really limiting how many
patients come into the clinic,”
Leber said.
Medical School student Lauren
Gaston-Hawkins said since medi-
cal students were given a directive
from the Association of American
Medical Colleges in mid-March to
pause clinical rotations, the tran-
sition to telemedicine was a great
idea but difficult to implement.
“At the beginning, I was some-
what neutral about the change,”
Gaston-Hawkins said. “I thought
it was a great opportunity to
propel the use of telemedicine
forward, but the transition was
difficult since we didn’t have the
infrastructure in place previous-
ly.”
Gaston-Hawkins
noted
that
even though medical students
weren’t incorporated in telemedi-
cine visits until June 8, she’s had
the opportunity to help transition
prenatal patient visits to video in
her department since mid-March.
Although
telemedicine
was
fairly new to many clinicians,
including Leber and Lapidos, the
concept was pioneered by Rashid
Bashshur, head of telemedicine
and professor emeritus of health
management and policy at the
School of Public Health.
According to Bashshur, tele-
medicine was first used in 1905 by
a Dutch physician to transmit EKG
sounds via a telephone. Bashshur
was commissioned by the Nation-
al Science Foundation in the early
1970s to research the capabilities
and viability of telemedicine.
“Interest was very meager at
that time,” Bashshur said. “But
I thought the idea had merit and
we had to investigate it to find out
what that merit was and (to) see if
we want to proceed on that basis.”
Bashshur said inefficient and
expensive
technology
initially
made telemedicine difficult to use.
However, once technology began
to develop, the Centers for Medi-
care & Medicaid Services began to
place constraints on the new con-
cept. Insurance companies did the
same. Some restrictions, including
only allowing patients from rural
zip codes to use telemedicine,
were overturned due to COVID-
19. As the pandemic began to
unravel, Bashshur said there was a
wave of new regulations that made
it easier for patients to access tele-
medicine resources.
“The pandemic opened the
floodgates
of
telemedicine
because we had to implement
mitigation efforts to slow the rate
of infection and the separation of
people became critical,” Bashshur
said. “In addition, keeping health
care workers safe from the infec-
tion was important.”
Health clinicians discuss
future of telemedicine
MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter
Design by Hibah Chughtai
Public commenters
Public commenters
call ‘U’ to action
call ‘U’ to action
ARJUN THAKKAR &
LEXIE GREENBERG
Daily Staff Reporters
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com
Regents listen to concerns about funding,
testing capabilities and student representation.
The pandemic opens
up new possibilities of
virtual doctor visits