Tackling the tough issues

RMU's Valerie Powell addresses some concerns regarding electronic medical records at Modearn Healthcare.com. Money quote:

The reason for integral communication among medical and dental providers is to optimize and support chronic care, the source of over 70% of costs of healthcare in the U.S., to optimally support prenatal care affecting the unborn, to optimally support pediatric care and to address the urgent multidisciplinary needs of patients at risk of osteoradionecrosis. (link)

Powell is a university professor of computer and information systems, and an expert in health care information systems. Powell served on Gov. Ed Rendell's Chronic Care Management, Reimbursement and Cost Reduction Commission.

Doing us proud

The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" will feature LoBello’s Spaghetti House in Coraopolis in an episode airing at 10 tonight. LoBello's is managed by 1973 RMU graduate Benny Joe LoBello.

A longtime commercial banker, LoBello decided a few years ago to go back to work at his family’s restaurant, which LoBello’s grandparents opened in 1944. Nearly everything on the menu is still made from scratch, much of it by Benny Joe’s mama -- and the restaurant's owner -- Rose, a regular there at 809 Fifth Ave.

Guests are invited to carve their names into the wooden booths, if they can find a space in between the hundreds who have already done so over the years. And anyone showing an RMU ID will get a 25 percent discount, LoBello promised.

In other alumni news, Ricky Frazier, new v.p. of customer care for Comcast, received the Minority Achievement Award from Minority Opinion Magazine. The Tribune-Review featured Frazier as a Newsmaker in Sunday's paper.

We're blushing

RMU got some nice coverage this week in the Tribune-Review: Click here for an article about the transformation of our campus, and here for a story about the women's hockey program.

"A filmmaker with great promise"

Alumnus Thomas Dixon gets a great review from the Post-Gazette for his film "The Korean."

A hero speaks

The Trib features a Q & A today with Paul Rusesabagina, who was interviewed after his appearance Wednesday as part of the RMU Pittsburgh Speakers Series.

Growing success -- organically

Kudos to Shared Acres, a community support agriculture program, which recently won an Annual Celebration of Excellence Award from the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce. (hat tip to the Post-Gazette.) Shared Acres is run by husband-and-wife alumni Dwayne and Renee Bauknight.

In the winter 2009 Foundations magazine, due to hit mailboxes (and the Internet) in January, RMU Senior Writer Val Brkich will give readers an insider's look at the Shared Acres, which has a partnership with RMU for student research projects.

"The United States of America are great"

The hotel manager whose rescue of 1,200 people inspired the film "Hotel Rwanda" praised the election of the first U.S. president with African roots.

"The United States of America are great," said Paul Rusesabagina, when asked for his feelings about Barack Obama's victory in Tuesday's presidential election.

Rusesabagina spoke today at RMU as part of the Diversity Speaker Series. He is speaking tonight as part of the RMU Pittsburgh Speakers Series.

"This is a very good lesson of democracy to the whole universe, the whole world," Rusesabagina said. "All those minorities who are always threatened by the majorities should learn the lesson of democracy from this country."

See the video:

This just in...

Last year, RMU nursing graduates had an overall pass rate of 91 percent on their licensing exams -- compared to an overall pass rate of 85 percent for Pennsylvania and 87 percent nationally. Well done, ladies and gentlemen.

YouTubed

Nothing fancy, but we now have a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/RMUNewsTube. For some reason our profile picture isn't showing. To save you the trouble, here's our first video:



Also, our nursing students have added Episode 2 to their channel.

Less than 48 hours...

Election Day draws near, and an RMU poll shows that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will eke out a narrow victory in Allegheny County over his Republican opponent, John McCain.

Students in Norman Schnurr's Marketing Research class conducted the poll of 290 county residents last month. In the spring, Schnurr's students' correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton would beat Obama in the county in the Pennsylvania primary.