UTHSCSA - Faculty Profiles

Search All | Profile | Publications | Grants | Faculty Index

Berggren, Ruth Elizabeth M.D

School of Medicine
Medicine
(210) 567-0799
berggrenr@uthscsa.edu

Director, Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, Marvin Forland, MD, Distinguished Professor in Medical Ethics, James J. Young Chair for Excellence In Medical Education, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UT Health Science Center San Antonio

Appointments Education Expertise Teaching Publications Grants

10/2007 - Present	Director	UTHSCSA, Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, San Antonio, TX
9/2006 - Present	Associate Professor	UTHSCSA, Medicine, San Antonio, TX

Date	Description	Institution	# Students
11/2009 - Present	Preparing for Global Health Work	The University of Texas Health Science Center	20 students
Co-Course Director - Preparing for Global Health Work is a two-week multidisciplinary course for 4th-year medical students who are planning future global health experiences. This preparatory course provides a foundation of practical knowledge in global health to optimize the students overseas experiences, facilitate their adaptation to working in different cultural settings, and maximize their impact in the communities where they serve. Topics include chronic and infectious disease, parasitic infection, prioritizing community resources, health disparities, ethical dilemmas, cultural awareness and professionalism. The course material is presented through a variety of approaches, including lectures, small group case discussions, laboratory sessions and online learning modules. Enrollment: 20.
9/2009 - Present	ELEC5044 Preparing for Community Service Learning		10 students
Course Director - Three-week interdisciplinary course to prepare students to engage in community service learning projects. Topics of instruction include community needs assessment, the culture of poverty, childhood obesity and diabetes, sexuality education, physical fitness, alcohol and drug prevention, smoking cessation, working with adolescents and reflection. Following the didactic session, medical, nursing and pre-professional students work together to plan and implement an eight-week mentored community service learning project. Taught in conjunction with NURE 3090. Enrollment: 10
9/2009 - Present	Intro to Clin Sci I	The University of Texas Health Science Center	230 students
To increase the students focus on humanism and professionalism, Dr. Berggren and School of Nursing faculty offer an interdisciplinary seminar on living with chronic illness. Faculty interview volunteer patients to bring to life the patient experience of living with chronic illness and to enable students to imagine the patients experience. Bringing the nursing and medical students together in one classroom for this experience fosters a team-building mentality and a spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration necessary for enhancing professionalism on the campus. Medical students also view two films that focus on the experience of illness and participate in small group discussions. Films include "Wit" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." HIV Part I and HIV Part II lectures given March 29 and 30 to medical and physician assistant students. Enrollment: 230
9/2009 - Present	Indian Health Care Precep	The University of Texas Health Science Center	2 students
Course Director - The goal of this elective is to provide senior- level students with an exposure to rural family practice-model medicine in a cross-cultural setting. It takes place in Navajo Nation clinics and involves broad community involvement. Grades are determined based on clinical evaluation from on-site preceptors and a reflection essay. Enrollment: 2.
12/2008 - Present	Project Haiti	UT Health Science Center San Antonio	10 students
Precept 10-15 students on global health trips to Haiti and/or the Dominican Republic during 1-2 weeklong trips per year. Prepare students for clinical experiences and engage in reflection.
12/2008 - Present	Literature and Medicine II	The University of Texas Health Science Center	10 students
Course Director - In this longitudinal course students concentrate on short stories, poems and/or novels. While some of the stories directly address medical or ethical issues, the primary purpose of the course is not to enhance knowledge in these areas but to promote appreciation of these works through discussions with students (on-line via Blackboard and in class) and, on occasion, with special lecturers. There are three class meetings as well as some special events and extensive online discussion. Readings help students prepare for and process clinical experiences, furthering their development as people as well as physicians. Taught January - April in conjunction with MEDI 7004. Prerequisit ELEC 5038. Enrollment: 10
9/2008 - Present	INTD 4007 Community Service Learning		10 students
Course Director - An interdisciplinary longitudinal course for fourth-year medical students that provides students with the opportunity to gain knowledge about community service learning, participate in service to the community through developing and conducting a community service learning project with the guidance of a mentor, present their results at a conference poster session, and reflect on all of these experiences as part of the learning process. This is an online course with one mandatory in-class meeting. Taught in conjunction with NURE 3090. Enrollment: 10
1/2008 - Present	On Becoming a Doctor	The University of Texas Health Science Center	230 students
Co-Course Director - On Becoming a Doctor: Ethical & Professional Tools for the New Physician helps students develop practical skills to assist them in ethical and professional challenges they will face as residents. OBJECTIVES: To identify ethical and professional challenges faced by residents; To gain awareness of personal beliefs and values of medical practice; To demonstrate ethical & professional decision-making skills that assist in respecting human dignity through providing compassionate patient care; and, To explain non-medical factors that impact health care. Enrollment: 230. Small group preceptor for 15 students.
1/2008 - Present	Elective in International Medicine	The University of Texas Health Science Center	20 students
Course Director - MEDI 7003 is a vehicle for global health experiences in resource-poor settings and to gain insight about different health care systems around the world. Students participate in three weeks of clinical activity at an approved international site. Faculty prepare students for travel and evaluate based on the principles of community service learning, as well as evaluations from on-site clinicians. Enrollment: 20.
9/2007 - Present	Literature and Medicine	The University of Texas Health Science Center	30 students
Course Director - In this longitudinal course students concentrate on short stories, poems and/or novels. While some of the stories directly address medical or ethical issues, the primary purpose of the course is not to enhance knowledge in these areas but to promote appreciation of these works through discussions with students (on-line via Blackboard and in class) and, on occasion, with special lecturers. There are six class meetings as well as some special events. Readings help students prepare for and process clinical experiences, furthering their development as people as well as physicians. Taught August - April in conjunction with ELEC 5038 and ELEC 5039. Enrollment: 30.
9/2007 - Present	Literature and Medicine I	The University of Texas Health Science Center	10 students
Course Director - In this longitudinal course students concentrate on short stories, poems and/or novels. While some of the stories directly address medical or ethical issues, the primary purpose of the course is not to enhance knowledge in these areas but to promote appreciation of these works through discussions with students (on-line via Blackboard and in class) and, on occasion, with special lecturers. There are three class meetings as well as some special events and extensive online discussion. Readings help students prepare for and process clinical experiences, furthering their development as people as well as physicians. Taught August - December in conjunction with MEDI 7004. Enrollment: 10
8/2007 - Present	On Becoming a Doctor Foundations	The University of Texas Health Science Center	230 students
Co-Course Director - On Becoming a Doctor: Practicing Clinical Ethics & Professionalism helps students understand ethical dilemmas they will face in their professional lives. The class uses a combination of didactic lecture and small group discussion to explore issues that deal with the challenges physicians face in practice and in training. Enrollment: 230 Small Group preceptor for 15 students.
4/2007 - Present	MEDI 4151 Poverty, Health and Disease		20 students
Course Director - This is a four-week elective offered in March-April of the fourth year of medical school to students who wish to gain insight into the complex interplay between poverty and health, both in the United States, and in resource-limited settings around the world. The purpose of the course is to expose students to several thought leaders and appropriate published literature, including books, written to address these concepts. Enrollment: 20
9/2006 - Present	Infectious Disease Attending

Year	Degree	Discipline	Institution
1994	Postdoctoral Fellowship	Infectious Diseases	University of Colorado Health Science Center Denver , CO
1992	Clinical Fellowship	Infectious Diseases	University of Colorado Health Science Center Denver , CO
1991	Residency	Medicine	Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Boston , MA
1989	Internship	Medicine	Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital Boston , MA
1988	MD	Medicine	Harvard Medical School Boston , MA
1984	BA	Biology (With High Honors)	Oberlin College Oberlin , OH

Private
Funding Agency	Methodist Healthcare Ministries
Title	Frontera de Salud
Status	Active
Period	11/2009 - 12/2010
Role	Principal Investigator
Grant Detail	Students and mentors in the volunteer program, Frontera de Salud, provide healthcare to people of the Rio Grande Valley and the colonias outside of Corpus Christi. This mobile student clinics program serves approximately 700 persons annually providing clinical intervention and preventative healthcare.
Funding Agency	AT&T
Title	Advance Directives Online
Status	Active
Period	10/2008 - 10/2010
Role	Principal Investigator
Grant Detail	This grant project will create an on-line advance directive completion, web-based program. Consumers and patients will be able to find detailed information on advance directives, input their information and desires, and then print out a completed advance directive. The aim is to increase the ease of use and completion rate for advance directives. My role is to interact with the programmers, design the documentation, to write all copy, to test program, and to design and implement marketing.
State
Funding Agency	U.T. Office of Health Affairs
Title	Innovations in Health Professions Education
Status	Active
Period	9/2008 - 8/2011
Role	Co-Investigator
Grant Detail	Community Service Learning as Pedagogy for training health professions students at UTMB, UTHSCSA and UTHSC-H

Faculty

FAQ

Suggestions

Berggren, Ruth Elizabeth M.D

Causes for Immune reconstitution Failure in HIV

HIV in Rural Haiti.

HIV/Hepatitis B co-infection:

HIV/Hepatitis C co-infection:

Languages

Prevention of Maternal to Child HIV Transmission

Solid organ transplantation in HIV

Book Chapter

Private

State