Dear colleague: 

The inaugural DAWN Clinic Winter Gala at the Summit Event Center will be Saturday, Jan. 21, from 6 p.m. -9 p.m. Tickets to the gala will be discounted for all preceptors (faculty and residents), as a thank you for all that you do. The gala includes dinner and cocktails, a silent auction, and live auction, with all proceeds going directly to patient care needs and student leadership development efforts. The DAWN Clinic is celebrating two years of success and is an impressive student-led effort to provide health care in our community. To purchase tickets, make a donation, or sponsor a student ticket (to send one of the many students working hard to put this event together), please visit: https://dawngala.org/.

We are calling again for faculty to sign up as volunteers for the National Western Stock Show.  Mark Deutchman, MD, professor of family medicine and associate dean for rural health, said we have a significant need for faculty this year. Last year, our campus volunteers provided screenings to more than 1,400 adults and 350 children with the help of 78 faculty and staff volunteers and 171 student volunteers totaling 1,786 volunteer hours. The booth is staffed, and screenings are conducted by volunteer health professions students, clinical and academic faculty and staff. The screenings involve health assessment interviews, height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure, blood sugar, vision, balance, a verbal oral health screen and basic lifestyle modifications for adults. We need to have a licensed clinical faculty member present to supervise students from 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m. when we conduct health screenings on all 16 days of the stock show, which runs from Jan. 7 to Jan. 22.  Faculty shifts are only 4 hours to make it easier for faculty to participate. Register here.

The original Mini Medical School, now an online course offered as a free community service, will soon be available again. Since it started online at the end of 2014, the course has enrolled over 14,000 students. This year’s course begins on Monday, Jan. 23, runs seven weeks and is hosted on the Canvas Network. There are no exams and no course credit. Those enrolled in the online course get a broad overview of the basic science underpinnings of medicine in an engaging video format. There are weekly modules, each consisting of about eight units which range from four to seven minutes, allowing students to cover the material in a couple of hours a week, at their own pace, watching a unit whenever they have time. Additional resources, illustrated transcripts, an interactive discussion forum, optional self-test quizzes, and a Certificate of Completion are available. The course is suitable for everyone with high school education (though we do have some ambitious middle schoolers who have enrolled). There are no prerequisites. Go to https://www.canvas.net/browse/ucdenver/courses/mini-medical-school-3 to register. Questions? MMMOOC@ucdenver.edu. 

The School of Medicine’s Academy of Medical Educators is now accepting applications for its Teaching Scholars Program. This 18-month certificate program is designed to enhance knowledge and skills, and develop future leaders in medical and healthcare education with a focus on core components of educational scholarship and curriculum development. The program consists of twice-monthly seminars during the 2017-18 academic  

Foundations of Doctoring is recruiting small group facilitators to help teach and facilitate two upcoming physical exam sessions: Pediatric Physical Exam on Tuesday, Feb. 21 (2-5pm), and Musculoskeletal (knee & shoulder) on Thursday, Feb. 23 (2-5pm).  There is a faculty development session from 1 p.m.-1:50 p.m. prior to the small group sessions starting at 2 p.m.  During these sessions, facilitators will be working with groups of three to five 1st and 2nd year medical students, as well as patients and standardized patients.  Facilitators can sign up online.  If you have questions contact Meleah Himber, Foundations of Doctoring Administrator, at 303-724-6421 or email fdc.sessions@ucdenver.edu.

CU Innovations and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade have announced the 2016-2017 Advanced Industries Accelerator CU pre-allocation grant application round is now open.  The submission process is online this year, and CU researchers can find information and a link to apply on the CU Innovations website here. The grant limit is $180,000 ($135,000 state + $45,000 matching funds), and CU Innovations will provide the matching funds for this round.  The written application must be uploaded by 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23.

The CU Medicine 2017 annual member meeting will be this Wednesday, Jan. 11, in the Richard D. Krugman MD Conference Hall in Research Complex 2. A reception will begin at 5 p.m. followed by a business meeting at 6 p.m. with presentations from Jane Schumaker, executive director of CU Medicine and a clinical affairs update from Anne Fuhlbrigge, MD, medical director, and Tina Finlayson, MD, and Michael Narkewicz, MD, associate medical directors.

There will be no message next week, Jan. 16, due to the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. 

Have a good week, 

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