Resources for farmers and farm families in Illinois

Frequently Asked Questions Are pregnant and breastfeeding women allowed to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Yes. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG, the primary professional society of US OB/GYNs), the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM), and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) have all recommended offering the COVID-19 vaccine to women who are trying to get pregnant, currently pregnant or breastfeeding. It is important for pregnant women to be given the chance to get vaccinated in part because pregnant women

Carbondale, IL – The Southern Illinois University System President’s Office released recommendations from its first Veteran’s Summit held last fall in Mt. Vernon. The two-day gathering of education, non-profit, policy and government leaders, sponsored by the McCormick Foundation, addressed challenges facing veterans including access to healthcare, educational opportunities and legal assistance in order to create a strategic blueprint to improve veteran’s services in central and southern Illinois. “The summit was very successful because it was able to shine more light on veterans in central and

Autumn Bohac of Effingham was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was 16 years old. Now a 29-year-old mother of four, her health care journey reveals the everyday anxiety and pain that rural patients feel. Autumn lives just a few blocks away from her town’s hospital. However, specialty care teams she has needed to manage her diabetes and four high-risk pregnancies have always been almost two hours away. With her first two pregnancies, seeing a specialist required 1.5 hours of travel. However, during her 3rd and 4th pregnancies, she was able to use telehealth for appointments with SIU

Instead of renting a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, driving two hours and risking exposure to COVID-19, the Hall family from Tuscola, Illinois jumped at the chance to have a telehealth visit with an SIU Medicine surgeon. Suffering from multiple sclerosis, Vicki Hall often makes the painful trip to see her various doctors in Central Illinois, including the trek to Springfield to see several of her SIU Medicine doctors. In January 2018, she was also diagnosed with esophageal cancer. After radiation treatments, her cancer is now in remission, but she struggles to swallow. To see if she’s a

The SIU Alton Family Medicine Residency Program is happy to offer some upcoming residency program informational sessions via Webex. Please join Program Director, Dr. M. Rebecca Hoffman, and Program Coordinator, Alison Witcher, for these 30-minute sessions to get your questions answered! Each session with begin with a short presentation of general program information and we will then open the session to attendees for questions. Please note that these sessions are not practice interview opportunities . Be prepared to arrive to the session(s) of your choice on time to ensure you hear the entire

M. Rebecca Hoffman, MD, MSPH, program director for the SIU Alton Family Medicine Residency Program, was selected as a LEADS Fellow for the 2020-21 year. The LEADS fellowship (Leadership Education for Academic Development and Success) is sponsored by the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM), the national group of family medicine department chairs and senior faculty. It is a 1-year national program designed for faculty who are exploring department chair or other senior academic family medicine roles. This fellowship provides experiential learning around the Family Medicine