For understandable reasons, much of our attention focuses heavily on our resident and fellow training programs. The chance to participate in them is a big reason many of us choose careers in academic medicine, relishing the opportunity to pay forward to the next generation who will succeed us. Continuing medical education, however, is another critical component of our education mission and many of our faculty and staff members spend notable amounts of time preparing and delivering CME events. Their commitment to providing health care professionals from across the state with refreshers and introductions to new discoveries, therapeutic innovations, and current guidelines runs as deeply as their commitment to their trainees.

Our department is currently in the thick of delivering these carefully planned programs. Last month saw the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology delivered deep dives into subspecialty-specific conditions ranging from bariatrics to inflammatory bowel disease. Two weeks ago, one of our department’s longest-running educational programs, Progress, completed its two-day program of presentations focused on general internal medicine and its subspecialties. What is notable about Progress is that its attendance is sizable enough that society meetings are planned around it. Members of the Iowa Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine held both a scientific poster competition as well as its chapter meeting. The Iowa Chapter of the American College of Physicians also held a couple competitions in addition to its chapter meeting. In both the Doctor’s Dilemma and the Clinical Vignette competition, residents from the University of Iowa bested teams and presenters from the state’s other training programs, continuing our longstanding demonstration of our residents’ clinical acumen. Great work, colleagues!

Photographs and reports are still forthcoming from two more CME events from last week: the Current Topics in Allergy & Immunology conference, this year focusing on sino-nasal diseases, and the collaboration between our Cardiology Division and the Heart & Vascular Center, in Heart Failure 360, which featured a presentation from a very special guest. We will share those stories with you soon. We are also still looking forward to two more major events in addition to our regular weekly conferences and our divisional and departmental Grand Rounds sessions. Next week, on Tuesday, October 15, we are proud to present the 53rd annual Internal Medicine Research Day. Though not a CME credit, this very important event in the life of our department represents an opportunity to discover what some of our most forward-thinking investigators are working on, and to celebrate the breadth and depth of the department’s research enterprise. We are also pleased to present a keynote from Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Dan Roden, an innovator in personalized medicine. The day will close with a large poster session that reached maximum capacity for entries. As in prior years, awards will be given for best poster presentation in multiple categories to students, residents and fellows, and to junior faculty. The department is also proud to be a sponsor for the 7th annual Quality & Safety Symposium (QSS) on November 20 and 21, which will also host a poster session. This year, QSS will feature two keynote presentations: the first on providing care to people with addictions from key leaders of the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition and the other from the inventor of “just culture.” This year promises to really raise the bar for attendees seeking new ways of increasing the rigor and quality in their practices in ways that will yield optimal outcomes with minimal harm to the patients that we serve.

The members of the Section of Oncology within our Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Blood & Marrow Transplantation are also raising the bar. The growth in clinical trials alone is impressive; the novel therapeutics offered here in key areas are in many cases unique in the nation and certainly in the state. Under the leadership of Dr. Mo Milhem, the breadth of their research into preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer is noteworthy. From the psychosocial implications of a diagnosis on both the patient and their loved ones to identifying circulating novel biomarkers, our oncologists within the NCI-designated Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center have long kept Iowa City a destination for top-flight cancer care and contributed to our national ranking. I am grateful to Mo for this overview of just a sample of the impressive work that faculty and other providers in his section are performing.