One of the world's most powerful health care leaders visits South Dakota

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Mark Johnston, an executive with Avel eCare in Sioux Falls, speaks with National Institutes of Health Director Monica Bertagnolli prior to her meeting with local health and tech leaders in Sioux Falls on May 30, 2024. (Jonathan Ellis/The Dakota Scout)

The head of the world’s largest funder of health research visited South Dakota Thursday on a fact-finding mission.

Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, the director of the National Institutes of Health, accepted an invitation from Sen. Mike Rounds to explore the research and collaboration occurring in health care in South Dakota. They were joined by Dakota State University President Jose´-Marie Griffiths, South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations’ President and CEO Tim Rave, as well as local health researchers and others in academia.

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The meeting started with brief opening remarks before being closed to the public. But Bertagnolli, Griffiths and Rounds spoke to The Dakota Scout prior to the start of the meeting.

When The Dakota Scout suggested to Bertagnolli that South Dakota doesn’t see a lot of visitors of her background, the career cancer researcher who took over the NIH in November laughed and said, “I’m from Wyoming. You get lots of visitors like me.”

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