Minnesota’s new health chief vows to build trust

09/28/2007

Minneapolis physician Sanne Magnan will seek to restore faith in the state Health Department.


By Warren Wolfe,
Star Tribune
September 27, 2007


As the state's new health commissioner, Dr. Sanne Magnan will try to protect and enhance the health of Minnesotans.

But her first task will be reassure legislators and others who say they lost trust in the department and its previous commissioner.

A Minneapolis physician with wide health-systems experience, Magnan, 55, appeared to take the first steps toward doing so Thursday at a news conference, where Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced her appointment.

"I am a physician, a scientist and a leader," she said. "I think the openness of leaders is very important, and listening to many stakeholders is important to building trust, and I pledge to do that."

Magnan replaces Dianne Mandernach, who resigned last month after intense criticism.

For a year Mandernach had suppressed a state study about 35 cancer deaths related to taconite mining on the Iron Range.

In addition, in 2004, Mandernach's credibility suffered when a website posting by the department suggested abortion might have a role in breast cancer. Critics denounced those claims as junk science, and the wording was removed from the website.

Magnan said Thursday she will share the department's research findings with the public.

Sen. Linda Berglin, a key legislator, endorsed Magnan's appointment Thursday.

"I believe Dr. Magnan to be of the utmost integrity. She has earned the respect of the medical community as both a brilliant clinician and competent manager in her role as president of the Institute on Clinical Systems Improvement [in Bloomington]," said Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, who heads the Senate's Health and Human Services Budget Division.

"I have confidence that she will lead the Department of Health in a way that restores public confidence and improves public health in Minnesota," Berglin said.

However, two Iron Range legislators said Magnan has significant work to do.

"She's got a pretty big job to do to restore public confidence in the department," said Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. "What concerned me most about this whole mesothelioma thing on the Range probably wasn't so much the issue here on the Range, but what else is it about public health across Minnesota that we don't know? There's a serious lack of confidence in the department."

Said Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm: "I'm just hoping that ... she restores the faith of the public in the department. ... I would think that after all these years in which we've tried to get results out of the [Health] department and haven't been able to get any, we're going to have to actually see some good cooperation in order for people to say that something has now changed and that it's going in the right direction."

Keeping her doctor's job?

Magnan, a specialist in internal medicine, will start work about Nov. 1.

She will leave her job as president of the Institute on Clinical Systems Improvement, which fosters collaboration between health-care providers and insurers in Minnesota and surrounding states.

She also is staff physician at a tuberculosis clinic in St. Paul a half-day each week -- "and I'd like to keep practicing there if I can make it work," she said. "Seeing patients teaches us things every day. Seeing health care from their perspective grounds you."

She supervises physician interns at the clinic in her role as clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, and wants to continue that as well.

Pawlenty praised Magnan's experience and ability when he introduced her.

"Minnesota is ranked the healthiest state in the nation, and I believe Dr. Magnan will build on that tradition as we continue to work on improving and reforming health care in our state and protecting and promotion the public's health," he said.

'Weird kid' who loves math

Magnan is a native of North Carolina and moved to Minnesota in 1974 to study for her Ph.D. at the university.

A "weird kid because I loved chemistry and math," she was accepted at several schools, chose Minnesota because of its "fabulous medical chemistry program" -- and because she was offered a three-year Bush Foundation grant to pay for school.

She got her medical degree in 1983. She and her husband, David, have two children, Grace and Hannah.

On Thursday, Hannah skipped a high school government class to attend the news conference announcing her mother's appointment.

But not to worry -- today she will give her teacher a hand-written excuse from the governor, scrawled across the top of the news release.

A pro-life commissioner

When asked at the State Capitol news conference Thursday about her position on abortion, Magnan described herself as "pro-life." She said later she didn't want to get into details about what that means.

"People always want to talk about one issue," she said. "Certainly, I believe life begins at conception, but I recognize that as a physician, you look at whatever data exist about abortion and other issues. As a leader, I'll listen to other people's perspectives, understand their concerns, and as a public servant I'm going to uphold the law."

Pawlenty, who opposes abortion, said Magnan's stance did not enter into his decision to appoint her. When he chose Mandernach as commissioner in 2003, he said her opposition to abortion played a role in her appointment.

Magnan said that among her top priorities will be to help Minnesotans stop smoking, exercise more and eat better -- "the most important steps we can take to improve the health of Minnesotans. We know a lot about how to do that."