Walking Into the Unknown Premiere

March 23, 2009 -- Walking Into the Unknown, a 65-minute, health documentary featuring Duluth alumni Arne Vainio, M.D. and David Jorde, M.D., made its debut tonight at the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Marshall Performing Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. At least 200 people attended including faculty from the medical school-Duluth campus, UMD, friends and colleagues of Dr. Vainio, and others. 

The Center of American Indian and Minority Health (CAIMH) co-sponsored the premiere along with other organizations on the UMD campus. “The Center is so pleased to have sponsored this event, it was clear from watching the film and the reaction of the crowd last evening that this film will have an enormous impact in the healthy lives of Native men,” commented Joycelyn Dorscher, MD, Director of CAIMH. “Dr. Vainio showed a great deal of courage and humility in making this film. He shared his humor and his fears and it touched those who were there,” she added.

Walking into the Unknown follows Dr. Vainio as a patient as he experiences screenings for various health conditions.  Vainio created the film to further educate American Indian males on health care services and to reduce resistance to necessary health screenings.  “Making this film changed me as a physician,” Dr. Vainio told the audience at the event. “I never knew what it meant, as a physician, when I sent my patients to see a dietician or to get a colonoscopy. Now I know, and I can be a better physician because I can empathize as well as educate them.”

Dr. Vainio is scheduled to present the film at the Seattle Indian Health Board in Columbia, WA,  the Association of American Indian Physicians national conference in Alexandria, VA,  the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Future Doctor’s Program, the Third Annual Muscogee (Creek) Nation Citizens' Diabetes Awareness Summit in Okmulgee, OK; Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College in Hayward, WI; Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Onamia, MN;  and Bad River Band of Ojibwe’s “Journey to Wellness” Conference in Odanah, WI.

The film can be played in its entirety or by each segment that addresses the major health issues faced by Native American men:  diabetes, heart disease, stroke, alcoholism, and suicide. The program also includes a segment on cancer and follows Dr. Vainio as he is screened for colon cancer. For information about purchasing the film contact Teresa Angell at teresaangell@fdlrez.com.

The documentary was funded by a Special Diabetes Grant from the Indian Health Service and the Fond du Lac Reservation, and the premier is sponsored by the Human Services Division of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the University of Minnesota-Duluth's American Indian Learning Resource Center, Center of American Indian and Minority Health, American Indians in Science & Engineering Society and Anishinaabe Student Organization.

Arne Vainio, M.D. is an enrolled member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.  He completed his undergraduate studies in 1990 at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, entered the University of Minnesota Medical School – Duluth and graduated in 1994.  He completed his Family Practice Residency Program at the Seattle Indian Health Board and Providence Hospital in Seattle, Washington in 1997.  He has been employed as a Family Practice Physician at the Min-No-Aya-Win Human Services Clinic on the Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota since September of 1997.  His hospital affiliations include St. Mary’s Medical Center, St. Luke’s Hospital & Regional Trauma Center, Miller-Dwan Medical Center and Cloquet Memorial Hospital.  He is also employed as a Preceptor at the Duluth Family Practice Center and volunteers as a preceptor for the University of Minnesota Medical School-Duluth Campus.  He is a member of the Association of American Family Physicians and the Association of American Indian Physicians.   In 2008, Dr. Vainio received the Early Distinguished Career Award from the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Alumni Society. 

Pictured top to bottom: David Jorde, MD, alumnus of the Duluth medical campus, congratulates Vainio and comments on his experience in the film. Arne Vainio, MD, at the premier dais and with spouse Ivy Vainio who produced the film.  James Boulger, PhD, director of alumni relations at the Duluth campus of the medical school, congratulates Dr. Vainio.