A lasting impression

Tonight the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine will celebrate the graduation of their fellows, members of five different subspecialty programs—general cardiovascular disease, cardiac electrophysiology, transplant, interventional, and cardiac imaging. The scope of training that exists within the division speaks to the breadth and depth of our efforts toward steeping our trainees in wide-ranging experience as well as supporting them as they shape their career. This also marks the beginning of one of my favorite times within the department, graduation season. Two weeks ago we celebrated graduates of the Carver College of Medicine as they crossed the stage in Hancher Auditorium. We were all delighted to hear from their choice for commencement address, Dr. Manish Suneja. In his speech, which you can watch here, Dr. Suneja said something that has stuck with me these last couple weeks. He reminded the graduates and their guests that although they must remain lifelong learners of medicine, the Latin root of “doctor” means “to teach.” He listed the different groups of people these new MDs would now be responsible for teaching—patients, peers, and students—and I have to agree that one of the unassailable joys of this profession is to share what I have learned and continue to learn with those around me. Over the next month or so Internal Medicine will celebrate education, that beating heart at the center of being a physician, the transmission of our knowledge and experience to new classes of residents and fellows, confident that they have the tools to do the same, carrying our great privilege and responsibility into the future. I am excited to celebrate our graduates’ achievements, but I am more excited to see what you do next.

One of this year’s residency graduates, Dr. Jon Day, did not cross the stage last year with his intern cohort. That is because in his second year he was the first to join a program that exists at only a handful of other academic medical centers in the country, the StARR program. Stimulating Access to Research in Residency is an NIH-funded R38 grant that buys residents an extra year of reduced clinical responsibilities so they can focus solely on mentor-led research. Dr. Day has since been joined by two other residents, Drs. Haley Pysick and Ashten Sherman. The aim of the R38 is to replenish the numbers of physician-scientists in academic medicine, and judging by the quality and passion in the presentations these three delivered at Grand Rounds earlier this month, the program is working. Our deep thanks to their mentors and to Drs. David Stoltz and Pediatrics’ Paul McCray, who co-lead this program at Iowa. This is yet another example of how collaboration and commitment to shared goals sets Iowa apart from our peers.

Research mentorship is everywhere in our department in large and small ways, formally and informally. Two of our junior faculty have been consistently rewarded for their efforts to build their research careers. Former endocrinology fellow and now clinical assistant professor Dr. Adeyinka Taiwo has just received an NIH K12 to continue her search for links between Type 1 diabetes and liver disease. In true Iowa fashion, her assembled list of mentors cuts across divisions and even departments as she leverages available expertise in her work and her growth. Hem/Onc’s Dr. Manasa Nayak joined our department as as a postdoc in Dr. Anil Chauhan’s lab and is now a research assistant professor. Dr. Nayak continues to benefit from the mentoring model that Dr. Chauhan has honed into a well-oiled machine, with success story after success story emerging from his lab. Just in the last six months, Dr. Nayak has received two separate recognitions from the American Heart Association for his research. First, he received the Elaine Raines Early Career Investigator Award for finding a link between platelet activation and One-carbon metabolism. More recently, at the AHA Scientific Sessions, he was a finalist for the prestigious Kenneth Brinkhous Early Career Investigator Award for his work showing upregulation of PKM2 in activated platelets, identifying a potential target in treating arterial and acute venous thrombosis.

Finally, when we think about impact at Iowa and opportunity, it bears repeating that whether you are in this department as a faculty member, a trainee, a member of the administration, or working alongside us in nursing, your input and your expertise is deeply valued. Especially when that expertise has deep roots. I was especially impressed by all the ways in which ARNP Brian Wayson has transformed not only the face of our Pulmonary division but UI Health Care itself, offering material input to the design of our Respiratory Specialty and Comprehensive Care Unit (RSCCU), even down to its name! It is impossible to imagine pulmonary care here without this unit and we owe much of its continued success to Wayson’s effective but too humble leadership. Impact is easy at Iowa when you care and those around you give you the room to express it.