Dear Colleague, 

I have not much of an idea of what was happening on our campus this past week (other than the 458 emails I saw) since I spent last Monday and Tuesday in Tokyo.  As I mentioned last week, I was part of a team from Colorado State University and University of Colorado Health that visited a carbon ion radiation program at the Japan National Institute of Radiological Sciences.  CSU is hopeful that we might find a way to access this technology for research and the clinical treatment of cancer in both animals and humans.  We signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding to share information.  I took a vacation day Tuesday to visit with one of my sons and daughter-in-law and did a little sightseeing in the pouring rain that drenched Tokyo for 3 of the 4 days I was there.  I came back Wednesday, but Thursday left town again for Phoenix where the AAMC had its annual spring meeting. I will be back this afternoon. 

Thursday night, Randy Lortscher, MD, ’72, hosted a dinner for Phoenix area alumni so I could meet with them and encourage them to get reengaged with the School and the alumni association.  It was a really diverse group of people, ranging from David Dines, MD, ’53 who will be coming back in May for his 60th reunion to Brian Poirier, MD, ’04, who still remembers the discussions around whether we should be moving to this new campus while he tried to study.  This is the third time Randy has hosted an event in Scottsdale for the School, and it was perhaps the most successful.  I thank him for his generosity and his support throughout the years.

The AAMC meeting was different this year.  Normally, just the Deans get together to discuss those things that Deans discuss when they are in a quiet, somewhat private setting. This meeting brought together four different groups within the AAMC: the Deans, the CEOs of the Teaching Hospitals, the Group on Faculty Practice, and the Chief Medical Officers Group.  As a result, there were more than 300 attendees and there was a lot of time to learn from each other how best to deal with the significant budgetary pressures that are confronting us in research, education and patient care. I have found that there are always two or three interesting things that other schools are doing that we might incorporate in our environment and there were several people interested in our strategic planning exercise. 

Congratulations to Marsha Anderson, MD, who has been selected as a fellow in the 2013-2014 class of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program.  Marsha, an associate professor of pediatrics, joins a distinguished list of 16 other CU ELAM Fellows.  ELAM is the only in-depth national program dedicated to preparing senior women faculty at schools of medicine, dentistry, and public health for institutional leadership roles. 

All staff and faculty from the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus are invited to attend a summit focused on one of our major priorities:  Enhancing diversity university-wide. The summit will include exhibits, interactive activities and discussion opportunities. This format will allow learning about resources, sharing experiences and generating ideas for achieving our potential as a diverse and inclusive institution. The summit will be Tuesday, April 23, from 8:30 a.m. until noon at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, 3203 Quebec St., Denver. Breakfast will be provided. Admission is free, but registration is required by Monday, April 15. 

The School of Medicine has received a $2 million donation from Sue Anschutz-Rodgers to create an endowed chair in retinal diseases. The initial holder of the chair will be Naresh Mandava, MD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and executive director of the CU Eye Center at the University of Colorado Hospital. We appreciate the generous support of a program that serves so many. 

Grant Jones, executive director of the Center for African American Health, has been selected to serve on the health disparities panel of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was created by the Affordable Care Act. PCORI panels are critical contacts ensuring stakeholder input into the nation’s health care policymaking process. Selection to the panels was highly competitive. Grant was one of 84 people selected from among 1,021 applicants. The Center for African American Health is a community-based organization providing disease prevention and disease management programs to African Americans living in metro Denver. 

Research accomplishments of our school and campus, and CU in general, are recounted in a new publication called Research Colorado. The lead article features the work of faculty members Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, with lung cancer patients and Frank Accurso, MD, with young people with cystic fibrosis. The publication includes articles on other work that we can be proud of, including research into racial disparities, schizophrenia, the effects of fructose on body fat, and the work of the Cancer Center and Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. 

Finally, there was a nice article about Lilly Marks in the April/May issue of Colorado Expression.  It’s not posted on a website that I can find to share with you, but the hard copy is quite impressive.

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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