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Engagement and Belonging in Medicine – January 2025

Internal Medicine at Iowa

Dear Colleagues,

We hope you all are having a great start to the year, and that this January has found you recharged and optimistic for the path that lies ahead in 2025. We are excited to start the year with a variety of wonderful opportunities to learn and engage as we celebrate Human Rights Week.

Especially, we invite you to join us at our Distinguished Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Grand Rounds Lecture on Thursday, Jan. 23. This year, we are privileged to host Dr. Octavia Peck Palmer from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Palmer will be delivering a compelling talk titled, “Advancing Medicine for All: Transforming Practice to Reduce Disparities.” Her insights will undoubtedly inspire us to take meaningful steps in our own practices to advance medicine for all. We also invite you to check out the full list of the events and volunteer opportunities within the CCOM and broader campus: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights | The University of Iowa.

As we attend these events, let us be reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful words: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.”

Many of us have witnessed how, despite the advancements in medicine, disparities in access to care and outcomes persist—both globally and in our backyards. Many rural deaths in America, including from stroke, heart disease, and cancer, are thought to be preventable. Through our work in our telehealth programs with rural hospitals across Iowa and rural VAs across the country, we have seen firsthand the challenges that patients in rural areas endure to access timely and adequate care. Rural patients often must wait for days for a bed on higher-level facility to access the procedures or specialty care that they so desperately need. These are ongoing challenges within the current health care system that demand our urgent attention and action.

The addition of Mission Cancer + Blood to University of Iowa Health Care is one of the ways our institution is addressing those disparities: by collaborating with institutions and practices across the state to “bring the highest quality cancer care closer to home for all Iowans,” as Dr. Denise Jamieson stated. This is a significant milestone for our institution, but there is still much work to be done. Let this motivate us to continue growing and improving health care for all Iowans.

Human Rights Week begins Monday, Jan. 20

You’re invited to join your colleagues in our annual celebration of diversity and inclusion that occurs throughout the week of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, beginning Monday, Jan. 20.

Volunteer opportunity: Make tie blankets in partnership with United Way on Tuesday, Jan. 21 in the Pediatrics Conference Center, or on  Thursday, Jan. 23 in MERF. Visit the link for details.

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Internal Medicine Grand Rounds, Thursday, Jan. 23

Join us in the Medical Alumni Auditorium (E331 GH) for a special Human Rights Week presentation by Octavia M. Pack-Palmer, PhD, Vice Chair of Health Equity and Division Director of Clinical Chemistry at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, for her talk, “Advancing Medicine for ALL: Transforming Practice to Reduce Health Disparities.”

Dance Marathon is Friday, Feb. 7

Dance Marathon is a student-run organization that works to support pediatric oncology patients being treated at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Visit the link to find ways you can support this effort.

Women’s Faculty Development Conference is Feb. 21

Early bird registration ends Jan. 22. Follow the link for more details.

January events, celebrations, and holidays

Note: All holidays marked with * begin the prior evening. This is not an exhaustive list of cultural events and holidays celebrated in this month. Visit last January’s newsletter to see even more events, celebrations, and holidays not listed here that are celebrated across cultures in January.

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