Dear colleague:

A snowy Sunday afternoon and I am flying back from a weekend trip to Atlanta to visit family – celebrating two birthdays and Mother’s Day with two of the mothers in our family. It’s not entirely clear whether this will be the last of the snowstorms this spring, but I have scheduled time this week to have my snow tires removed. Hope springs eternal! 

This past week was a nice one.  We hosted the 2014 Annual Golden Stethoscope Preceptors Awards on Monday evening at a wonderful event here on the Anschutz Medical Campus.  It was the fifth annual “Golden Stethoscope,” but the 20th opportunity to thank the many individual physicians who precept our students a half day a week for three (sometimes four) years in their offices or clinics. Several of the physicians there that evening have been preceptors every one of the 20 years!  We owe all of them our thanks. These awards honor excellence in clinical education and let the School recognize the preceptors’ outstanding contributions to the next generation of physicians. Students nominate their preceptors and the competition is difficult to judge.   This year’s winners are:

• Emergency Medicine – JP Brewer, MD
• Family Medicine – Daniel Kortsch, MD
• Internal Medicine – Amber Wobbekind, MD
• OB/GYN – Ken Moss, MD
• Patient/Physician Communications – Anthony Elias, MD
• Pediatric – Tai Lockspeiser, MD
• Physical Exam – Karin Susskind, MD
• Role Model – Susan Ryan, DO
• Specialty – Kimi Kondo, DO
• Foundations of Doctoring Faculty Choice Award – Jerome Buckley, MD
• Kris Wenzel Award – Bobbi Siegel, MSW 

Last Thursday, David Schwartz, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, received the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s Annual Award for significant and unique contributions in Science and Medicine. This award is a tribute to David’s lifetime of work and he joins a roster of other distinguished faculty members, including David Talmage, MD, Theodore Puck, PhD, and Henry Claman, MD, to be recognized with the award, which is sometimes called “Colorado’s Nobel Prize.” Congratulations. David’s not resting on his laurels, though, upon receiving the award. He will be adding a new title, Interim Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and Biomedical Informatics, while the search for a director restarts. 

I was invited to the Bonfils-Stanton dinner, but as I often do, had a competing event: the Class of 2014 Senior Skit, which was held at Casselman’s in lower downtown.  The evening was filled with good humor, very creative videos, and several on-stage skits. Robert Rivard’s impersonation of me was good satire, and my comment later in the evening, when I had an opportunity to shoot back, that he would get a blank diploma was not true (and probably would be unfair). More faculty attended than usual, which was nice to see. 

Congratulations to Marc Moss, MD, professor of medicine, on his election as secretary-treasurer of the American Thoracic Society for 2014-15. The election puts him on a path to become president of the group in 2017-18. In addition to Marc, other society board members from Colorado are Robin Deterding, MD, professor of pediatrics and chair of the society’s pediatrics assembly; Greg Downey, MD, professor of immunology and chair of the society’s allergy, immunology, and inflammation assembly; and James Beck, MD, professor of medicine and chair of the society’s planning and evaluation committee.   

Our School received some good news from the statehouse before the lawmakers packed up and went home last Wednesday. Legislators approved Senate Bill 14-211, which will dedicate $250,000 to the CU Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Clinical Center to demonstrate a state commitment to helping achieve the federal Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center designation. 

Open Enrollment for benefits plans will continue through 5 p.m. this Friday, May 16. Descriptions of changes to some benefits and explanations of what happens if you don’t participate in open enrollment are available at the website. Be sure to get it done. 

Have a good week,

Richard D. Krugman, MD
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, School of Medicine

"What’s Going On Here" is an email news bulletin from Richard Krugman, MD, Dean of the CU School of Medicine, that is distributed to inform University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty members about issues pertaining to the School’s mission of education, research, clinical care and community service. See the UCH-Insider →

If you would like to receive these emails directly, please contact Cheryl.Welch@ucdenver.edu. 

Unsubscribe →