Recognizing Achievements

National surveys reveal that besides Hawkeye Football, the University of Iowa is widely recognized for excellence in medicine and literature. And within medicine, our department is best known for our decades of discovery in cancer, cardiology, cystic fibrosis, and diabetes, among a few other areas. However, I believe that if it is not already sinking in, Iowa will also become known for our breakthroughs in health services research. I was extremely pleased to learn that, under the leadership of Dr. Eli Perencevich, the VA’s Comprehensive Access & Delivery Research & Evaluation (CADRE) program grant has been renewed for another five years. To state it plainly, CADRE is one of our department’s research crown jewels. The sheer volume of activity and the ease with which their investigators design and implement new projects, combining multiple disciplines in any health care setting, is remarkable, matched only by their ability to secure significant extramural funding. Moreover, CADRE members perform highly relevant translational research that make meaningful differences in the lives of patients and the lives of clinicians. Their search for evidence-based outcomes undoubtedly improves health and the practices of our providers. I invite you to learn more about CADRE and its mission. I am excited to see what they achieve in the next five years.

Many of our individual faculty members have been recently recognized for their national and international achievements in academic medicine. Earlier this week, Dr. Mary Wilson formally received the 2018 Daryl and Nancy Granner Distinguished Mentor Award. The tributes both noted here and expressed during the event reveal Dr. Wilson to be more than worthy of this distinction. In accepting the award and revealing her philosophy toward creating change, Dr. Wilson quoted Mother Teresa, “If you cannot feed 100 people, just feed one.” This award honoring Dr. Wilson was generously endowed by Nancy and Daryl Granner and is overseen by Dr. Mike Welsh, who also recently formally received his own well-deserved honor, the 2018 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for his sustained dedication and discovery in cystic fibrosis research. The event in Boston is captured by this photograph, and a local celebration in his honor will be held toward the end of October. Two of our faculty members have also recently received professorships honoring their commitment to education and research. Dr. Lee-Ann Allen received the prestigious Kate Daum Professorship and Dr. Don Heistad was recently invested as the Pomerantz Family Chair in Cardiology. Photographs from the latter event will be forthcoming. Congratulations to all four of you—Mary, Mike, Lee-Ann, and Don—on these tremendous honors in recognition of your work, achievements, and contributions to the University of Iowa; thank you.

October has not just been a time for individual recognitions, it is also a time when many of our Continuing Medical Education events occur. These are wonderful opportunities to engage with old acquaintances, share new ideas, and capitalize on new connections. Recently, members of our Division of Immunology held a joint CME event with the Department of Dermatology, focused on the intersections of their specialties. Today, members of our Division of Cardiovascular Medicine are across the river participating in Heart Failure in the Heartland with many of their colleagues from the Heart and Vascular Center. Next week, one of our largest CME events, Progress, will hold its annual two-day event with members from the College of Pharmacy. We have also gotten a preview of what we can expect from the 6th annual Quality and Safety Symposium, which emphasizes the roles that all of us play in patient outcomes. I encourage your participation in these activities.

Finally, I would like to once again express my deep gratitude to the African American Museum of Iowa, a truly remarkable institution in Cedar Rapids, for naming me one of their 2018 History Makers. An honor like this is humbling because anything that I have achieved in my life and career is always an extension of the effort someone else took on my behalf. Family support, mentor guidance, and extraordinary effort from team members, colleagues, and fellow researchers are inextricable factors in every accolade that I have received. This award is as much theirs as it is mine, and its real value to me is as a reminder to make sure that those around me receive as much encouragement and support as I have been fortunate to receive.