Med school links with Lovell Center to aid vets

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The new Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, integrating all medical care into a single, fully-integrated federal health care facility with a single combined VA and Navy mission. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 18, 2012 1:47AM

NORTH CHICAGO — A new White House-led effort to better serve veterans struggling with the effects of traumatic brain injury and PTSD has found support in Lake County.

The Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, in partnership with the Lovell Federal Health Care Center, has signed-on with the Joining Forces initiative, a national effort aimed at mobilizing all sectors of society to offer more resources and opportunities to service members and their families.

CMS was one of the first medical schools to express its commitment to work with the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Obama administration to ensure that students are trained to meet the specific needs of active service members, veterans and their families.

“We’re proud to be one of the initiative’s early adopters,” said Dr. Russell Robertson, CMS dean. “Given that we are the academic arm of the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, our university has a very close relationship with military families. Every day, our students and clinicians see patients with an array of needs and only through continued collaboration can we offer the best care.”

CMS affiliated with Lovell, the former Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in 1974. The university and the hospital stand a short distance apart along Green Bay Road in North Chicago.

“As the nation’s first federal health-care center — which combines the personnel and resources from the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense — we could not be more pleased to take another groundbreaking step with our educational partner Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science,” said Patrick Sullivan, Lovell Center director. “Our longstanding relationship and shared passion of readying warriors and caring for heroes makes this a perfect location to begin the Joining Forces initiative.”

More than 100 other academic institutions associated with the AAMC and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic have also pledged to leverage their missions in education, research and clinical care to train the nation’s physicians to meet the unique health care needs of the military and veterans communities.

Together, the AAMC and AACOM are committing to improve the education in their medical schools, the research in their laboratories, and the clinical care in their hospitals to better address the health issues that military families face.