Dear colleague: 

Last Friday we welcomed new School of Medicine students to the Anschutz Medical Campus. Mid-morning, I welcomed the MD Class of 2020 on their first day of orientation. Today and tomorrow, these students are in Winter Park for team-building sessions, small group sessions on professionalism, and socializing. The matriculation ceremony for the MD students is set for Friday, Aug. 12, on Boettcher Commons. Also on Friday morning, I attended the white coat ceremony for the new class of Child Health Associate/Physician Assistant students. It’s an impressive class of 44 students selected from 1,570 applicants. 

Congressman Mike Coffman, who represents the district that includes the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, hosted a forum at the University of Colorado Hospital auditorium last Wednesday with Congressman Tim Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania. Rep. Coffman invited Rep. Murphy to discuss mental health legislation (HR2646) that passed the House nearly unanimously about three weeks ago. The legislation is now pending in the U.S. Senate. There were about 100 attendees representing mental/behavioral health organizations and professionals, physicians, nurses, social workers and public health representatives. 

University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) has been named to the Best Hospitals Honor Roll by U.S. News and World Report, recognizing it as one of the nation’s top 20 hospitals out of almost 5,000 evaluated. U.S. News ranked UCH as the No. 1 hospital in Colorado, with 10 individual specialties ranked among the best in the United States. With National Jewish Health, UCH shared the No. 2 ranking in the country for pulmonology. UCH is also nationally ranked in these specialties: Kidney disorders (No. 15), Cancer (No. 22), Orthopedics (No. 42), Neurology & Neurosurgery (No. 43), Diabetes & Endocrinology (No. 14), Gynecology (No. 32), Gastroenterology & GI Surgery (No. 22), Cardiology & Heart Surgery (No. 42) and Geriatrics (No. 36). Will Cook, CEO and president of UCH, told the Denver Post: “We wouldn’t have a ranking like this without our partnership with CU School of Medicine, since we’re the only academic medical center in the region. But we also wouldn’t have it without our dedicated doctors, nurses and staff. And this helps attract talent, because so many people are moving to this region, and when you’re looking to expand to meet that need it helps when you’re recruiting.” 

The first meeting of the EB iPS Cell Consortium was held on the Anschutz Medical Campus in late July. The consortium was formed to fight the rare and debilitating genetic disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), which affects thousands of people. EB causes the skin to blister and those blisters may appear in response to minor injury, heat, or friction from rubbing, scratching or adhesive tape. In severe cases, the blisters may occur inside the body, such as the lining of the mouth or intestines. Research teams from the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, Stanford University School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center are represented in the consortium. Led by Gates Center of Regenerative Medicine Director Dennis Roop, PhD, the Colorado team includes Ganna Bilousova, PhD, and Igor Kogut, PhD, both assistant professors of dermatology, Anna Bruckner, MD, chief of pediatric dermatology and director of the Epidermolysis Bullosa Center of Excellence at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Thomas Payne, PhD, Director of Cellular Therapies at the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility. 

Douglas K. Novins, MD, professor of psychiatry, has been selected as the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), beginning January 2018. In addition to his role in the School’s Department of Psychiatry, he is the Cannon Y. & Lyndia Harvey Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; chair, Pediatric Mental Health Institute, Children’s Hospital Colorado; and professor of community and behavioral health in the Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health, Colorado School of Public Health. 

The Tuesday, Aug. 16, meetings of the School of Medicine Executive Committee and the University Physicians, Inc., board and executive committee have been cancelled. The next meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Have a good week, 

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