Dear Colleague, 

It was a relatively quiet week around here this past week. I spent most of it in meetings (for a change) and traveled nowhere. This part of June is about as quiet as it gets around here for some of us. For the finance people, not so much, because it is both yearend and almost the new fiscal year. The new PA and PT students are beginning their routine of a summer of classes; in two weeks, the interns who started last June 23 will see the end of their first year of training after medical school; and the clinical residency program directors are gearing up for the graduations as they prepare for the influx of new residents in two to three weeks.  

This is also the time of year when there are gaps in the regularity of paychecks for everyone on our campus.  For those interns who started on June 23, 2012, the last day of their year is June 22, 2013, and because they will not start residency until July 1, 2013, there will be a week without pay. Further, for employees whose paychecks come from the university on a once-a-month schedule, the June 30 check will not be there until July 1. A decade ago, when the state faced a severe budget crisis, lawmakers pushed the last 1/12 of the salary and benefits budgets for state agencies into the next fiscal year. That payday shift remains in effect. So July will be a two-paycheck month. That may cause some problems for those who have automatic deductions scheduled for the last day of the month.  

Children’s Hospital Colorado and the School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and three other medical schools, have received a three-year grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. The AAMC announced the grant on Friday, May 31. The pilot programs funded by the grant will explore the feasibility of moving away from the traditional model (four years of medical school plus three years of residency training) to competency-based advancement from medical school through residency and practice in pediatrics.

The Boettcher Foundation has announced its 2013 Class of Boettcher Investigators in the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program. The group includes three scholars from the School of Medicine: Amrut Ambardekar, MD, instructor of medicine – cardiology, Joseph Brzezinski, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology, and Abigail Person, PhD, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics. Boettcher Investigators are awarded $225,000. The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program fills an unmet need in the state by assisting early-career investigators engaged in biomedical sciences to advance their research. Congratulations.

Ronald Sokol, MD, professor of pediatrics, has been elected a councilor of the governing board of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.  He will become president-elect of the association’s board in 2017 and its president in 2018. He will be only the third pediatrician to serve as the association’s president in its 63-year history.

Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of the CU Cancer Center, has been appointed to the editorial board of Cancer Research, the flagship journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. He also was elected treasurer of the Society of Urologic Oncology for a three-year term, after having served three years as a board member.

The School of Medicine Faculty Senate has its last meeting of the year tomorrow afternoon and I will miss it.  I have to travel for the annual selection of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars new cohort.  The senate and its leadership have had a good year.  Thanks to Todd Larabee, MD, president of the faculty, Bruce Landeck, MD, who was secretary, and Nichole Reisdorph, PhD, who is president-elect and will lead the senate next year.  Ron Gill, PhD, professor of microbiology, will leave the group after his year as past president.  He has been a thoughtful and excellent contributor to our academic administration in the School. I appreciate all their efforts as well as the time and effort of all the faculty members of the senate.  

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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