Dear colleague: 

I am sitting in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., writing this. The Broncos game is on the TV (another nice win) and I am just back from dinner at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) where several wonderful things are happening to some of our faculty. First, at the dinner this evening, which welcomed the IOM Class of 2013, which was announced last year but inducted this year, much to my surprise, Richard Johnston, MD, associate dean for research development and professor of pediatrics won the David Rall Award from the IOM. The award is given to an IOM member who has demonstrated distinguished leadership as chair of a study committee or other such activity, showing commitment above and beyond the usual responsibilities of the position. A fun part for me was that my very first job working in science after my senior year in high school was in David Rall’s summer research laboratory at the Mount Desert Island Biological Lab. Another syzygy! Congratulations Dick! 

And congratulations also to James Hill, PhD, and Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, whose election to the Institute of Medicine Class of 2014 was announced this morning and who will be inducted at the IOM annual meeting in October 2015. The IOM is an independent, nonprofit that works to provide unbiased and authoritative advice about health and health care. It was established in 1970 as the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Each year, the membership elects up to 70 new members. Jim and Dan have been excellent leaders and researchers on our campus and they join twelve other School of Medicine present or former faculty members who have been elected to the IOM. 

This weekend in Washington, D.C., was also a time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellows program. They had a dinner Saturday evening, followed by a performance by the Capitol Steps, a group that does superb parody of our elected politicians. There are a half dozen or so of our faculty or former faculty who have participated in the Health Policy Fellows program, which is one of only four of fourteen human capital programs that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is continuing. Any mid-career faculty interested in this program should look at the website and talk to one of us who have been through it. 

I am leaving the meeting early so I can be back in time to hear Lilly Marks, vice president of health affairs for the University and executive vice chancellor for the Anschutz Medical Campus, give the “State of the Campus” address this afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Hensel-Phelps Auditorium West, Research 1 building. Lilly’s address is titled “At the Inflection Point” and she will provide remarks about our progress and our goals for a successful future. Chancellor Don Elliman will give opening remarks and an audience question-and-answer period will follow the address. I encourage you to attend. Lilly’s speeches are always thoughtful, enlightening and inspiring. 

The Faculty Senate met last Tuesday and received briefings on the Office of Professionalism, Graduate Medical Education and the Curriculum Steering Committee from Barry Rumack, MD, Carol Rumack MD and Stuart Linas, MD, respectively. These activities are all central to our mission of providing a setting that provides the best opportunity for learning and recognizes the importance of treating one another with respect. I appreciate the hard work these leaders put in every day to help us achieve these goals. 

Congratulations to Michael Rudolph, MS-IV, for winning a competitive scholarship for the 2015 Conference on Medical Student Education to be held in February in Atlanta. The award from the Medical Student Education Scholarship Review Committee of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine recognizes Michael for exhibiting a strong commitment to family medicine through scholastic, volunteer and leadership pursuits. Michael, who is from metro Denver, is co-chair of the Colorado chapter of Primary Care Progress and is in the CU-UNITE urban underserved elective track. 

The Elevate project is an upgrade to the university’s human resources and finance systems and it goes live in November 2015. The Elevate project is a collaboration between CU’s system administration and campus personnel to enhance and update many aspects of the university’s financial and human resources business operations. Finance and human resource users will see new features, functions and enhancements to help employees consolidate tasks and find support. These are significant updates to systems that we all rely on. If you deal directly with these operations, please watch for informational sessions to hear more about the upgrades and check out the website for ongoing updates. The goal is to provide better service to us all. 

Finally, congratulations to Colleen Goode, RN, PhD, former long time Chief Nursing Officer at University of Colorado Hospital. She was named a Legend of Nursing at last week's Academy of Nursing meeting. It's nice recognition of a wonderful colleague's terrific career. 

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 →

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