Dean's Weekly Message
June 22, 2026
Peak Performance by CU Medicine
CU Medicine is No. 3 in the country on Vizient’s most recent rankings of top-performing academic billing offices. The achievement continues an impressive upward trend by our faculty practice on this critically important rating of our team’s efficiency.
The survey of billing offices by Vizient assesses the success of our team’s work, and in the FY25 Clinical Practice Solutions Center survey, we are achieving peak performance! We’ve moved higher every year since FY21.
The survey compares 167 data points and ranks schools based on seven calculated key performance indicators, including cost per claim, net collection rate, patient collection efficiency, and total billing FTE.
Congratulations to the team at CU Medicine for this outstanding performance! Keep up the great work!
Happy Retirement to Dr. Michael Narkewicz!
We bid farewell to Michael Narkewicz, MD , Professor of Pediatrics, at last week’s CU Medicine Board meeting. Dr. Narkewicz, who completed his residency and fellowship at CU, has had a remarkable 43-year career with the School of Medicine, earning a national reputation for expertise in pediatric hepatology and liver transplantation and cystic fibrosis liver disease.
In recent years, he represented Children’s Hospital Colorado on the CU Medicine Board. We are grateful for his commitment to improving our school and campus. We wish him well in this exciting next chapter. A retirement open house will be held June 30 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Mt. Princeton room of the 2nd Floor Conference Center at Children's Hospital Colorado.
Flourishing in Florence Writing Workshop
Mark Earnest, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Nancy Sharp, MFA, Adjoint Instructor of Medicine, are leading a writing workshop this fall in Florence, Italy, for health care professionals.
“Flourishing in Florence” offers physicians an opportunity to work on their writing skills in the cradle of the Renaissance.
The program, from October 11-16, is designed to help medical professionals rediscover meaning and the art of healing through story. While developing writing skills, participants will also improve skills that increase empathy, improve listening skills, and promote professional growth and renewal. Participants can also earn CME credit.
In addition to his medical practice and administrative work, Dr. Earnest is a thoughtful writer, with nonfiction essays published in The New England Journal of Medicine (“Goals of Care and the Importance of Being Polish,” “Dr. Kolhouse and the Cowboy,” and “ The Second Life of Jacqui B.”), along with a poem "The Morning After the Election" in JAMA in the past year.
Ms. Sharp leads narrative medicine efforts at Denver Health, where she regularly profiles clinicians, leads workshops, provides editorial coaching, and helps to tell the story of this 166-year-old organization. She also writes for Denver Health’s CEO. At our school, she teaches both narrative and reflective writing, and is a certified instructor in Guided Autobiography, an evidenced-based storytelling curriculum.
Details, including an itinerary and testimonials, are available on the Flourishing in Florence Writing Workshop for Health Care Professionals website.
Featured News
As Stroke Among Young People Rises, Researchers Investigate Why
While stroke continues to be a concern, and most common, in older populations, incidence in young people is on the rise. Faculty members in the Department of Neurology have set out to investigate why.
“We've learned quite a bit over the past five or six years, and I think we're still trying to pick apart the details and really understand it, but more than anything, we've recognized that it is an issue that needs further study,” says Professor of Neurology Sharon Poisson, MD, who created the young adult stroke clinic at CU Anschutz over a decade ago.
Michelle Leppert, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, recently led a study on whether detection bias explains why young women seem to be particularly affected by stroke. The research, however, found that does not seem to be the case.
Now, Leppert, Poisson, and their colleagues are searching for more data that could help lead them to new answers.
Learn More About the Research
Resident and Fellow Updates
Ahmad M. Hider, MD, MPhil, a second-year general surgery resident, has been selected to participate in the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany. Dr. Hider is among approximately 600 Young Scientists chosen from more than 20,000 applicants worldwide. The prestigious meeting convenes Nobel laureates and outstanding early-career scientists from around the globe to foster scientific exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. His selection recognizes accomplishments in surgical outcomes research, health policy, and efforts to improve health care access and quality for underserved populations.
Selin Schamiloglu, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow with the DiGregorio Lab, was picked for the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows. Leading Edge Fellows join the program as postdocs through an open competition that runs November-February each year. Fellows remain in the community as they progress through their postdocs, faculty searches, and assistant professorships, creating an extensive peer- and near-peer mentorship network.
Featured Events
6/23
Faculty Advancement Working Group
Tuesday, June 23, noon–1 p.m.Zoom
The Faculty Advancement Working Group will hold monthly office hours to provide a forum for faculty and their supervisors to ask questions about promotions among the ranks of Instructor, Senior Instructor, and Assistant Professor. These office hours are virtual only, on the 4th Tuesday of every month from noon–1 p.m. Access the office hours through the Faculty Advancement Working Group zoom link
7/9
Postdoc Research Day (PDRD)
Thursday, July 9
Donald Elliman Conference Center, Anschutz Health Sciences BuildingPDRD is an annual event that brings together members of our university community to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of postdocs at CU Anschutz, CU Denver, and affiliated hospitals. This year’s theme is “The Postdoc Collective,” focusing on cross-disciplinary thinking, collaboration, and innovation in research. This event is not just for postdocs! Graduate students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend. Whether you are here to support colleagues, learn something new, or network with emerging scientists, your presence makes a difference.
PDRD Registration & Abstract Submission
Lightning talk abstract deadline May 15 | Poster abstract deadline June 24
PDRD Questions?
Recent Publications
Todd C. Hankinson, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery, is a co-author of an article, “ Decompression with or without Duraplasty for Chiari I and Syringomyelia,” published May 27 by The New England Journal of Medicine.
Toan C. Ong, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics; Michelle A. Barron, MD, Professor of Medicine; and two other members of our campus are co-authors of an original investigation, “Estimated Effectiveness of 2024-2025 COVID-19 Vaccines in Adults,” published June 15 by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Scott M. Thompson, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, is corresponding author of an article, “Characterizing non-hallucinogenic psychedelics beyond the head twitch response: phenotypic fingerprinting of lisuride and LSD,” published June 13 by Translational Psychiatry. Six co-authors are from our campus.
Social Spotlight
The latest edition of C3 magazine from the CU Anschutz Cancer Center is out now! Read the cover story about the team science approach that has resulted in new treatments and new hope for patients with acute myeloid leukemia. See the full Instagram post.
Have a good week,
John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
Dean, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine
The Dean’s weekly message is an email news bulletin from John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean of the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform CU Anschutz School of Medicine faculty members, staff, students and others about issues pertaining to the school’s mission of education, research, clinical care and community service.
Subscribe to the Dean's Message