ISU and St. Luke’s Health Systems partner to foster research

Idaho State University’s Lynn Bohecker is passionate about research. She relishes the thrill of being on the ground floor of a medical breakthrough or on the front lines of scientific literature that can help the medical community improve patient care.

For the past year, Bohecker’s ground floor has been a small office in the east wing of the Idaho State University-Meridian Health Science Center where she holds the position of postdoctoral fellow in the Idaho Center for Health Research.

She is the first fellow to serve in the ISU-St. Luke’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship which began July 1, 2015 to accelerate research between both institutions. ISU and St. Luke’s Health systems share program costs and will add a second year-long fellow position July 1.

“I think research provides an opportunity to obtain information that can make changes to better inform the health care community, to better inform how to help patients,” said Bohecker, who earned a Ph.D. in counselor education at ISU-Meridian in 2015.

Bohecker ‘s current project involves documentation of a model developed by St. Luke’s pediatrician John Hanks and his team for the care of the “medically complex pediatric patient” – a child facing a complicated medical condition or treatment.

Her research will help the medical community better understand care from the perspective of the patient, the family, parents, medical providers and community partners.  The goal is to facilitate better care and reduce costs by decreasing emergency room visits and duplication of services, said Bohecker.

While working on her doctorate at ISU, Bohecker published articles in numerous peer-reviewed journals and helped ISU secure a $1 million grant to increase access to rehabilitation services for Idahoans with traumatic brain injuries. She also holds a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling from Sacramento State University and has served as adjunct professor at three universities.