Dear Colleague,

It has been a full two weeks – and I am again writing this in the air on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in South Florida hoping to get home tonight because there is an ice storm headed to Chicago which is where I need to be changing planes, sadly.  We visited a nonagenarian uncle and two octogenarian aunts this weekend hoping that this will not be the last of our annual visits to them to learn more of our family history. The fragility of life was clear to us as we left on Friday afternoon after a moving two hour memorial service for George Eisenbarth, MD, PhD.  Sitting there one got a wonderful view of George’s life, his loves and his time at Duke Medical School, the Joslin Diabetes Center and here in Colorado where he was so successful.  There was practically no overlap in the reminiscences of more than a dozen speakers who came from all over the world for the service.  

The annual medical staff awards dinner for the University of Colorado Hospital was Jan. 16, where I joined Hospital President and CEO John Harney in celebrating the excellent work of leaders throughout the organization. Medical Staff President Robert McIntyre, MD, Professor of Surgery, emceed the evening and got the nearly two dozen awardees up to the stage and through their acceptances speeches in less than two hours (a UCH indoor record).  He had to forgo his own dinner to do it which was a shame, because the dinner was really very good!  To see a list of the honorees, watch for the Jan. 30 copy of The UCH Insider.

The UPI Annual Meeting, Board Member Elections and Reception is tomorrow night at 5pm in the Trivisible Room of RC-2.  Join us if you can – we will be highlighting the progress in the clinical enterprise of the School of Medicine for this past year.  And while I am reminding you of that, if you are a clinician (MD,  NP or PA) practicing at UCH, please take the “Provider Survey” -- an anonymous online survey of what works and what could be improved at UCH and UPI. The survey, which is administered by Morehead Associates, is available through Feb. 18.

One of the School of Medicine’s students has been honored with a top prize from the University. Anand Reddi has received the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Student Award, which recognizes those who represent the ideals of the third president of the United States by demonstrating excellence in academic responsibilities while contributing outstanding service to the wider community. Anand, an MD candidate scheduled to graduate in 2014, has worked to protect commitments for the provision of HIV drugs in resource-limited settings.

The National MS Society notified a team of researchers at the School of Medicine last week that they were selected to receive a “Collaborative Research Center Award,” which provides five years of support supplementing existing grants. The four core investigators in the application are Wendy Macklin, PhD, chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and from the Department of Neurology: Chair Kenneth L. Tyler, MD, Jeffrey L. Bennett, MD, PhD, and Gregory P. Owens, PhD. According to the Society, the purpose of the award is to “stimulate collaboration and interaction in MS research among independent investigators, strengthen the ties between basic and clinical research, and stimulate recruitment of researchers from other fields into MS research.” Kudos to the team.

Tami Struessel, senior instructor at the University of Colorado’s Physical Therapy Program, was honored by the Education Section American Physical Therapy Association with the 2012 Feitelberg Journal Founders’ Award, which recognizes excellence in preparing a manuscript by a first-time author in the Journal of Physical Therapy Education.

I would like to congratulate the first cohort of 11 teams to participate in the Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety and Efficiency’s Certificate Training Program. The CTP is an intensive 12-month training program for clinical leaders that provides faculty and staff with the skills necessary to improve patient care within clinical units, programs and services at the University Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. For more information, contact IHQSE Director Jeffrey Glasheen, MD.

Finally, Lilly Marks, executive vice chancellor of the Anschutz Medical Campus, provided an excellent response to those (like a former Governor of Colorado) who would question the value of the investment in a high-quality health-care campus.  It was well 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 →

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