Dear Colleague:  

Tracy L. Bale, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Bale is one of only 100 new members elected this year to the prestigious academy. Current academy members each year elect new members based on the new members’ major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.

Dr. Bale is the Anschutz Foundation Endowed Chair in Women’s Integrated Mental and Physical Health and Director of InterGenerational Stress and Health and Director for Sex Differences Research in the Department of Psychiatry.

Her research focuses on understanding the role of stress dysregulation in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases, and the sex differences that underlie disease vulnerability in humans using the mouse as a preclinical model. In her directorship roles, Dr. Bale works to engage in the community, developing collaborations and partnerships with local organizations, health officials, social workers, and policy makers.

This is a major and well-deserved honor for her transformative and inclusive work. Congratulations!

Concurrent Coding
UCHealth is making an important update to our process for recording patient notes. Concurrent coding involves real-time coding of diagnoses and procedures while the patient is still in the hospital. Notes made to the patient’s chart will be reviewed by a team to ensure severity of illness, complications, and thought processes for care are adequately documented. The updated coding process was tested in a pilot over the summer, with a goal of phased rollouts for inpatient services over the next few weeks and months.

As Vineet Chopra, MD, MSc, Chair of Medicine, explained in a message about concurrent coding  to Department of Medicine faculty last week: “I too experienced this when I was on service recently. While the overall number of queries increased, the process was relatively painless: a query on documentation, suggestions to capture complexity, and a simple response to make this happen.”

There is an important purpose for this update. We take care of many patients with the most complex health needs, but we’re not consistently documenting those facts. As a result, we’re not fully recognized for the incredible clinical care we provide. It is our expectation that applying concurrent coding in our patient notes will give a better understanding of the exceptional outcomes we are able to achieve. Please take the time to make these changes a reality.

Faculty Updates
Regina D. Richards, PhD, MSW, Vice Chancellor of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement, has been honored with the 2024 Exemplary Leadership Award from the Group on Diversity and Inclusion of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She will receive the award during the Learn Serve Lead meeting in Atlanta on Friday, November 8.

Clay Cothren Burlew, MD, Professor of Surgery, received the Dr. Olga Jonasson Distinguished Member Award from the Association of Women Surgeons during the group’s annual conference this month. This award is given to an AWS member who, through outstanding mentorship, enables and encourages women surgeons to realize their personal and professional goals.

Chris Nyquist MD, MSPH, Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Chief Epidemiology Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado, was elected Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. In January 2027, she will be the first pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases to serve as President of the society. Also, at the IDWeek meeting earlier this month, Dr. Nyquist received the SHEA Pediatric Scholarship Award from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America for her contributions to the field of pediatric infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology.
 
Sarah Parker MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology, and Medical Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Children’s Hospital Colorado, has received the SHEA Antimicrobial Stewardship Award the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America for her work in antibiotic stewardship.

Saketh R. Guntupalli, MD, Professor and Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, has been selected Program Chair for the International Gynecologic Cancer Society annual meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2025. The IGCS is the largest international organization dedicated to the treatment and research in women's cancer and is a leader in advocacy for women’s oncologic care in developing countries. 

Jennifer Armstrong, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, has been selected Handling Editor and Executive Editorial Board for the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. The journal disseminates advances in research methodology and informs the educational development of a diverse, translational workforce.

Casey Greene, PhD, Chair of Biomedical Informatics, is quoted in a career feature article published October 14 in Nature that discusses the results of a 2024 global survey of hiring managers in science. He said job applicants should be clever about where they look for information, noting that lab websites are frequently out of date, so job seekers should look up the principal investigator in PubMed or other venues appropriate to the field.

Laura Vargas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, presented gun trafficking research at the White House Roundtable on Addressing Gun Violence in Latino Communities on October 11.

Recent Publications
K. Ulrich Bayer, PhD, professor of pharmacology, is corresponding author of an article published October 22 in Cell Reports. He is also photographer of the journal issue’s spectacular cover image of footprints on a glaciated mountain slope. Dr. Bayer described the connection between the study and the cover photo: “Cover legend: Navigating crevasses at night is aided by spatial learning and memory, which requires forms of synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation (LTP). In this issue, Rumian et al. describe how the different phases of LTP are mediated by distinct CaMKII functions. The picture was taken on the slopes of Cotopaxi by Ulli Bayer.”  Nine colleagues from the Department of Pharmacology are co-authors.

Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, is a corresponding author of an article published October 21 in Cell Stem Cell finding that when the body makes more cholesterol, it can be harmful to brain cells in people with progressive multiple sclerosis. An article in the campus newsroom provides more detail.

Leslie A. Lange, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, is a co-author of an original investigation published October 23 by JAMA Cardiology that evaluates the utility of a systolic blood pressure polygenic risk score with chlorthalidone response.

Call for Proposals
The Academy of Medical Educators is gearing up for the 2025 Education and Innovation Symposium and you’re invited to submit educational abstracts, works in progress, workshop proposals, and panel discussion ideas. Submissions are open until Sunday, December 15. The symposium will take place in person on April 30, 2025, at the Anschutz Health Sciences Building, with a virtual event on May 1. For more details about the symposium, visit the website . The academy fosters a vibrant, cross-departmental community of educators enhancing teaching and promoting excellence in medical education. Applications to join the Academy of Medical Education open Friday, November 1. For a list of members, visit the Academy Membership Directory.

CTRC Open House
The Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute is hosting an open house at its Outpatient Adult Clinical Translational Research Center (CRTC) on the 6th floor of the Anschutz Health Sciences Building on Wednesday, November 6, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The goal is to thank current CRTC users and to raise awareness of its services for others. The CTRCs are an incredibly valuable service to researchers, offering infrastructure, resources, and dedicated space to conduct clinical research. You can register to attend and download an invitation from the campus calendar by clicking on this link. Ronald Sokol, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the CCTSI, said all are welcome, so drop by even if you don’t register.

UN Leader Addresses Health Care for Children
Ann Skelton, Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and Professor of Law at the University of Leiden, is delivering an address, “Advancing Children’s Healthcare Rights through Advocacy,” on Tuesday, October 29, at noon in the Mt. Oxford, 2nd Floor Conference Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado. The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Pediatrics and the Kempe Center. You can find more information about this and other events on the  campus events calendar, where you can also sign up for event notifications.

Have a good week,

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Colorado School of Medicine

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