Dear colleague: 

Many thanks to U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, who represents the congressional district that includes our campus, and U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper for championing funding that will support programs to recruit underrepresented students to health care professions. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, which President Biden signed into law on March 15, funds the federal government for the current fiscal year and it provides $1 million to support the Underrepresented Minority Pipeline for Health Professions at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Rep. Crow requested the funding, with letters of support from state Rep. Leslie Herod and Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, among others. Two other funding requests from Rep. Crow that benefit our campus were included in the budget law: $950,000 for an equipment purchase at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, and $500,000 for a health training initiative at Children’s Hospital Colorado. 

Recent reports in the news media spotlight ways members of our School of Medicine and campus community are offering help to people in Ukraine who are suffering because of the Russian invasion. Bre Stafford, a third-year medical student at our Colorado Springs branch, is collecting medical supplies, diapers, crutches, and hygiene products, and working with a nonprofit NOVA Ukraine to deliver them. She discusses those efforts in reports on KOAA and KRDO. Earlier this month, our colleagues at UCHealth donated $200,000 of medical supplies to Project C.U.R.E. to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country. 

Several articles posted recently in the School of Medicine newsroom are worth your time: 

• Jayashree Kalpahty-Cramer, PhD, has been named chief of the new Division of Artificial Medical Intelligence in Ophthalmology. She is joining the School of Medicine from Harvard Medical School, where she is an associate professor of radiology and co-director of the Quantitative Translational Imaging in Medicine lab and the Center for Machine Learning at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.
• Mohammed Al-Musawi, MD, research instructor in cardiothoracic surgery, tells his compelling story about growing up in Iraq, becoming a physician, collaborating with U.S. Army doctors, leaving Iraq during the rise of the terrorist Islamic State, and making his way to the CU School of Medicine. 
• William Cornwell, MD, assistant professor of medicine, and Larry Allen, MD, professor of medicine, are featured for working on COVID-19 guidance for cardiologists released this month by the American College of Cardiology. 
• Adit Ginde, MD, professor of emergency medicine, describes his work investigating the safety and effectiveness of giving trauma and burn patients smaller amounts of supplemental oxygen. Adit’s study is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and done in conjunction with the CU Anschutz Center for Combat Medicine and Battlefield Research.

Have a good week,

John J. Reilly, Jr., MD
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, School of Medicine