The Wisconsin Idea is a public health solution

CONTACT:
Jeanan Yasiri Moe, Director of Strategic Communications
[email protected] | 608.890.1491

State Senator and Dean of Medical School cite new efforts to reach underserved communities in essay published by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

MADISON, Wis. – State Senator Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) and Robert Golden, dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health, offer a nonpartisan vision for “reaching across the state” into rural and urban communities in urgent need of more physicians.

Their essay is called “Innovation for the public good: How the Wisconsin Idea makes people healthier.” It is the latest in a new online series featuring more than 20 prominent contributors on the topic of innovation.

Olsen and Golden, who serve together on the UW Health Authority Board, praise “science without walls” and cite new training programs focused on rural and urban medicine.

“We arrived at our partnership from different paths,” they write. “The Wisconsin Idea is equally meaningful to both of us. When it comes to health, it means going beyond the student or patient in front of you and developing outreach programs and new innovative discoveries that will affect all of our communities and populations, as well as individual patients and their families.”

The larger online series is called “Innovation and the Wisconsin Idea.” In addition to Olsen and Golden, contributors include university researchers, business leaders and public officials who share their views on the crucial interdependence between university innovations and the strength of the Wisconsin economy.

Co-authors represent different regions of the state while sharing a common bond through the field they represent, from agriculture and engineering to health care and policymaking.

Contributors to the series include:

Erik Iverson, Managing Director, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Governor Tommy G. Thompson and Professor Mike Sussman
Professor Dan Ludois and Cecil Edirisinghe, CEO of Velicon
Chris Salm, CEO of Ab E Discovery, and Dean Kate VandenBosch
Dr. Alan Kaplan, CEO of UW Health, and Dr. Susan Turney, CEO of Marshfield Clinic
John Neis, Executive Managing Director of Venture Investors, and Cory Nettles, Founder and Managing Director of Generation Growth Capital Inc.
Dean Ian Robertson and Greg Piefer, CEO of SHINE Medical Technologies
Zach Brandon, President of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, and Tim Sheehy, President of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce
Arjun Sanga, President of WiSys, and Zach Halmstad, Co-Founder of Jamf
State Senator Luther Olsen and Dean Robert Golden
Chancellor Dean Van Galen and Tom Still, President of the Wisconsin Technology Council
State Senator Alberta Darling and Rock Mackie, Professor and Entrepreneur
Mike Knetter, President of the University of Wisconsin Foundation

For more information about the series Innovation and the Wisconsin Idea, please visit warf.org/WisconsinInnovates. Comments on the series are welcome at [email protected].

About WARF
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) helps steward the cycle of research, discovery, commercialization and investment for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Founded in 1925 as an independent, nonprofit foundation, WARF manages more than 1,900 patents and an investment portfolio of $2.7 billion as it funds university research, obtains patents for campus discoveries and licenses inventions to industry. For more information, visit WARF.org and view WARF’s Cycle of Innovation.

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