Dear Colleague: 

Congratulations to Kenneth Meza Monge, MD, a research fellow in the Department of Surgery, for becoming our school’s first-ever winner of the New Investigator Competition of the Shock Society.

This is an awesome accomplishment! Dr. Meza received the honor at the 48^th Annual Conference on Shock in Boston earlier this month. 

Dr. Meza’s project was to find a method of preventing postoperative delirium in elderly patients. The condition happens, Dr. Meza says, because as we age, our organs become less resilient to stress. In the liver, this is due in part to a decrease in the number of functional liver cells called hepatocytes.

“The blood flow is reduced, and the ability of the liver to detoxify is reduced as well,” he says. “All these different changes caused by aging can predispose older people to more liver damage during this surgical stress.”

Working in the lab of his mentor Juan-Pablo Idrovo, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Dr. Meza looked at the liver as the possible origin site of post-operative delirium, finding that even minor surgery caused a kind of silent or “subclinical” liver injury — not severe enough to show up on standard blood tests but still damaging at a molecular level.

In their research, Dr. Meza and his mentors used a novel MCJ inhibitor developed by Mercedes Rincon, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology.

In an article in the Department of Surgery newsroom, Dr. Meza describes his work and credits Dr. Idrovo and fellow mentors, Akshay Chauhan, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Elizabeth Kovacs, PhD, Professor of Surgery. Kudos to all for this wonderful collaboration!

Recent Publications
Petter Bjornstad, MD, Associate Adjoint Professor of Pediatrics, and Kalie Tommerdahl, MD, Assistant Adjoint Professor of Pediatrics, are co-authors of an article, “Adjunct-to-insulin therapy using SGLT2 inhibitors in youth with type 1 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial,” published June 6 by Nature Medicine.

Noel Mueller, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is a co-author of an original investigation, “Dietary Patterns, Sodium Reduction, and Blood Pressure in Type 2 Diabetes,” published June 9 by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Lucas E. Morgan, MD, PGY4 in the Child Neurology Residency Program of the Department of Pediatrics, is corresponding author of an article, “Child Neurology: A Case of Rasmussen Syndrome Without Seizures,” published in the July 2025 issue of Neurology. Three co-authors are from our campus.

Halden Scott, MD, MSCS, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and an investigator with the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS), is corresponding author of an article, “Clinical Decision Support for Septic Shock in the Emergency Department: A Cluster Randomized Trial,” published June 10 by Pediatrics. Nine co-authors are from our campus.

Saif Aldeen Alryalat, MD, Instructor in Ophthalmology, is corresponding author of a review article, “Structure–function correlates in anterior visual pathway lesions: a systematic review,” published June 7 by Eye. Four co-authors are from our Department of Ophthalmology.

Christina R. Fisher, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, is a co-author of an article, “Effects of a remote patient monitoring program on cost of care for neonates with inadequate oral feeding,” published June 12 by the Journal of Perinatology.

Faculty Updates
Richard Zane, MD, Professor and former Chair of Emergency Medicine, has been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives. The publication’s editorial staff selected honorees who helped their organization achieve or exceed operational, financial, and clinical goals. Nominees were evaluated for how they improved community health, addressed industrywide challenges, or otherwise influenced the healthcare industry at the local or national level. Dr. Zane will become Chief Medical Officer of UCHealth on August 1. He currently is leading an effort to develop infrastructure, data reporting, and metrics for central services within CU Medicine, and to lay out opportunities for better alignment between CU School of Medicine departments and across the campus.

Jamie Feinstein, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Epidermolysis Bullosa Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado, appeared last week in the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Matter of Time, a new film by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. The concert documentary highlights groundbreaking efforts to cure epidermolysis bullosa as a model for advancing treatment of rare diseases. Learn more at matteroftimefilm.com.

Help Wanted
The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education is seeking candidates for the Assistant Dean of Admissions. Reporting to Jeffrey SooHoo, MD, MBA, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, the Assistant Dean will lead the School of Medicine’s undergraduate medical education admissions efforts. The job description includes details about the position and application instructions.

We are recruiting a new director of the clinical pillar for our Trek Curriculum. This role will oversee clinical learning from the preclerkship through post-clerkship phases, building on our strong clinical programs throughout four years of curriculum. This new role is needed for the next phase of Trek to focus on integrating our clinical science with medical and health systems science pillars. Anna Neumeier, MD, is chairing the search and we have extended our application deadline for broad engagement during this busy time of year. The job description includes additional details.

Watch this space next week for a posting for a new Director of Student Progress. This position, reporting to the Associate Dean of Medical Education in the Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Outcomes will coordinate our integrated support for students in academic difficulty as identified through the School of Medicine progress committee. The role requires careful coordination with leadership in the Office of Student Life, COMPASS guides, and all our clerkship phases. Nida Awadallah, MD, is chairing this search.

New School Rules
The rules of the School of Medicine have been updated with some significant changes that are important to our faculty, including:

• Simplified format of promotion dossiers (single cover letter and personalized matrix replaces four narratives and matrices),
• Removal of the time clock from the Clinical Practice and Research Professor tracks,
• Addition of ranks (Instructor, Senior Instructor, Assistant Professor) to the Clinical Practice track, and
• Renaming the Regular Series to the Tenured and Tenure-Eligible track.

These updates have been approved and take effect July 1, 2025. More information is available on the Promotion Updates website. Faculty submitting dossiers in 2025 can use either the new format or the legacy format, though hybrid submissions will not be accepted. More information and resources for dossier preparation can be found on this webpage of the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Distinguished Clinician Awards
Ten University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty were honored June 5 at the school’s Distinguished Clinician and Distinguished Faculty Professionalism Awards ceremony.

The School of Medicine’s Distinguished Clinician Award – now in its third year – recognizes exceptional physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) who promote a patient-centered culture and are frequently eager to share their clinical knowledge and skills with others.

The honorees were:

• Zachary Asher, MHS, PA-C, Associate Professor of Clinical Practice of Surgery
• Katherine Dickerman, RN, MSN, ANP-BC, Assistant Professor of Medicine
• Stephen Duntley, MD, Professor of Clinical Practice of Neurology
• Saketh Guntupalli, MD, FACS, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Michael Hanley, MD, Professor of Medicine
• Emily Hemendinger, MPH, LCSW, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
• Sarah Nagle-Yang, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry
• Tom Walker, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Practice of Pediatrics

The Distinguished Faculty Professionalism Award was established in 2007 to honor faculty members who demonstrate exemplary professional behavior and dedication to lifelong learning. They also contribute to the teaching, service, and administrative activities of their department and the CU School of Medicine. The honorees were:

Additional detail about our distinguished colleagues is included in this article in the School of Medicine newsroom. Bravo!

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