Parkston's Wickersham appointed to Rural Medicine dean role at Sanford School of Medicine
In addition to this role, he will continue practicing family medicine at Avera St. Benedict Health Center in Parkston.
In the position of associate dean of rural medicine, Wickersham will help advance the school's mission to provide a workforce pipeline for rural South Dakota. He will collaborate with rural physicians, ensuring that medical students have meaningful experiences in rural areas, and design and support pathway programs that introduce the youth of rural South Dakota to medical careers. Wickersham will also provide leadership and oversight of all academic, research and public service programs for rural medicine sites, while fostering student professionalism and ethical behavior, and mentoring academic and clinical faculty.
A 2001 graduate of the Sanford School of Medicine, Wickersham completed his residency at the Nebraska Medical Center's Clarkson Family Practice Residency Program in Omaha, Neb. He was named the 2025 Physician of the Year by the South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians, and in 2023 he was given the Edward J. Batt, M.D., Memorial Teaching Award from the SSOM.
Wickersham is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, at both the state and national levels. He also serves on the Avera Health Board of Directors and the SDSMA PAC Board of Directors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
North Texas military veterans face sharp cuts to VA-funded in-home care
Veterans in North Texas who depend on federal funding for in-home care are seeing major cutbacks, forcing some to give up the independence of living in their homes. The CBS News Texas I-Team first reported in April that many veterans were receiving fewer approved hours through the Department of Veterans Affairs' Homemaker Home Health Aide (H/HHA) Program. The program is designed to help veterans live independently by sending aides to assist with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing and housekeeping. While the number of North Texas veterans enrolled in the H/HHA program has increased in recent years, the percentage of veterans who receive more than 20 hours per week of in-home care has steadily gone down in the past year, according to an analysis of data provided by the VA. Veterans enrolled in the program who receive more than 20 hours a week of in-home care has dropped from 37% in June of 2024 to 11% in June 2025. A VA spokesperson told the I-Team there had been some confusion about the scope of the program. To fix that, the VA North Texas Health Care System recently rolled out a new system to make sure hours are being approved consistently and correctly. One of the veterans affected is an 80-year-old Marine veteran from Denton who is suffering from cancer linked to exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. He asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation. The VA determined his disability rating was 100%, which represents how the disability impacts overall health and ability to function. The rating also determines what level of benefits veterans are eligible for. The Marine veteran had been receiving 37 hours of in-home care each week. The support allowed him and his wife, who has Alzheimer's disease, to remain in their home. But last summer, without warning, the VA cut his in-home care to 13 hours per week. With less help, the veteran said he had no choice but to move into assisted living. "I can't take care of my wife because I can't get help for me," he said, holding back tears. "That's what's hurtful about it." Nagraj Venkataraman, owner of BrightStar Care of Denton, a home health care agency, said all his veteran clients in the program — more than a dozen — have seen similar cuts. "If there is one segment of the population that needs help, it's our veterans," he said. "It's our duty to give back to them. That shouldn't be a cliché. It should be real." Marine veteran James Carey of Heath, Texas, also knows firsthand how devastating the cuts can be. Fifteen years ago, a training accident at Camp Pendleton left him with a traumatic brain injury. Now 38, Carey is blind, unable to move his body and suffers from dementia. Until this year, Carey had been receiving care from the VA around the clock. But in January, the VA reduced it to 16 hours per week. After multiple appeals, his hours were raised to 50 — still far less than what he had been receiving. His mother, Kim Carey, has been his primary caregiver. But she said she can't do it alone. "Why do we have to keep paying that price every day?" she said. "Why do we have to beg the VA to give him the benefits he earned?" The VA insists that no national policy has changed. In a statement, the VA told the I-Team there was some confusion about what the program was supposed to cover, stating the H/HHA is "not meant for housekeeping or 24/7 care." But the VA's own website lists housekeeping in a video as one of the services the program can provide — and does not mention any limits on hours. The VA North Texas Health Care System provided H/HHA services to 7,939 veterans in 2024 and 8,196 so far in 2025. The VA also pointed to other services available to veterans, including the Caregiver Support Program, medical foster homes and nursing homes.
Medscape
4 days ago
- Medscape
Residency Interviews? Stay Organized With This Hack
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Interview season can be so stressful, but it can also be really fun. My biggest piece of advice to stay organized during an interview season is actually to create an Excel spreadsheet. In all of the columns of the Excel spreadsheet, I want you to write down things that are important to you and keep track of them throughout every interview at every program that you do. Some things that I had written down were location, how many residents per class, the pay, if they gave free cafeteria food, how many months of medicine or other inpatient experiences I would have to do at that program, and the amount of vacation that they would give you. All of those things are super important to quality of life and how you will really fit into the program. Just think about a couple of things that you find super important and are going to be valuing when you rank these programs and keep a list of them, because after you've interviewed at like 10 programs, you won't remember which program said this or that. Making sure you're organized in an Excel fashion is the best way to do so.
New York Times
6 days ago
- New York Times
Israel Says It Has Paused Some Military Activity in Gaza as Anger Grows Over Hunger
The Israeli military said it had paused military activity in parts of Gaza on Sunday to allow in international aid amid global outrage over the severe hunger faced by Palestinians in the besieged enclave. The decision was a sharp reversal by Israel and followed growing international pressure over the dire conditions in Gaza, where nearly one in three people has not been eating for days on end, according to the United Nations World Food Program. Aid agencies and many countries, including some of Israel's traditional allies, say Israel is responsible for the desperate situation after first blocking and then restricting aid deliveries to Gaza for months. Six Palestinians died of malnutrition-related causes over the past day, including two children, adding to a toll of more than 50 deaths in the past month, according to the Gaza health ministry. Doctors, nurses and medics tasked with caring for Gazans are themselves increasingly struggling to eat, and baby formula is in short supply. Israel has blamed the United Nations and its partners, accusing them of failing to bring hundreds of truckloads of aid through Gaza's border crossings. The United Nations says that while some aid is allowed in, Israel has throw up a maze of bureaucratic obstacles and frequently rejects requests to coordinate deliveries, in addition to other challenges. Israeli officials had also argued for months that Hamas was diverting humanitarian aid. But Israeli military officials later said that they had no proof that Hamas was systematically stealing U.N. relief supplies. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
