There is something comforting about knowing what comes next. Part of the challenge in our work is navigating uncertainty from so many different directions, whether at the systemic level or in our more granular, individual efforts. But an academic calendar has some mile markers we can prepare for and be unsurprised by. June and July bring good-byes and hellos as trainees graduate and new ones arrive. Faculty change roles, new research questions emerge, clinical demands shift, but by October we are settled into some comfortable routines, and we can start to pass those reassuring mile markers.
Take Internal Medicine Research Day. For sixty years, we have set aside a day to celebrate the full array of research our faculty, fellows, residents, and students conduct. Think about the range of questions being asked—and answered!—across those 60 years about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, lung diseases, the liver, and kidneys. Questions about how to prevent infection, questions about how to make sure each person gets the best care right when they need it, no matter how far away they live. In those six decades, the research on display may have looked different, but the gathering itself has become part of the rhythm of our department. Every year, we know we will come together to hear about new discoveries, cheer on our trainees, and remind ourselves that research is one of the things that makes our department a vital part of the college and UI Health Care’s missions to improve global health. My thanks and congratulations to this year’s directors, Drs. Alicia Gerke and Alejandro Comellas, and all the members of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine who made this event such a success.
Fall is also a time for CME events, new and historic. Last week’s second Cirrhosis Care in Motion event brought together colleagues interested in improving care for people living with liver diseases. This week, our faculty, trainees, and partners from across UI Health Care are at the Iowa Cardiovascular Summit presenting advances in cardiac care to attendees from around the state and region. And, last week, our department’s decades-old flagship CME conference, Progress, once again partnered with the College of Pharmacy to deliver updates in primary care, hospital medicine, and many other areas of interest to our state’s clinicians.
October also brings another one of those annual rhythms: the beginning of a new round of medical student interviews for our residency program. For those of us who participate, the interview season can sometimes feel like a long series of Zoom screens, schedules, introductions, and conversations. But for the students on the other side of those screens, these conversations represent something much bigger. They are trying to imagine themselves here. They are deciding where they might spend the next three years of their lives, and we have the privilege of helping them see what makes Iowa special. Every year, our faculty and education leadership team find another impressive class of interns just as impressive as this current one. I am deeply grateful for the time and energy they put into this process. Recruiting great residents is not just about identifying promising medical students. It is about recognizing the people who will contribute to our culture, care for our patients, learn from our faculty, support one another, and eventually help shape the department themselves.
Photos for reflection
This fall we also celebrated faculty promotions with receptions for our newly minted professors and associate professors. Congratulations on your achievement! And across the department, divisions are finding their own ways to create opportunities for people to spend time together outside of their usual work. Last month’s Cardiology fellows’ welcome picnic at Terry Trueblood Park is a great example. What makes these moments special is that they happen in between the work. We see someone we may have only communicated with through email. We get to meet the spouse or partner of a colleague. We sit at a picnic table in the weekend sunshine and talk about something other than work. These moments matter, reminding us to appreciate the people beside us a little more deeply than before, which makes the great things we do together all the more special.
Community is built through repetition. We show up for each other, year after year. We celebrate promotions, welcome new trainees, share our research, mark graduations, gather for picnics, and make time for one another. Eventually, even new activities become traditions, and the traditions remind us that although the faces change, the commitment to one another remains.
Upi’s “Oh, WOW” moment
My congratulations to Dr. Kirsten Fiestan, winner of the clinical vignette competition at the recent Progress conference! Clinical vignettes are a wonderful example of one of the things I love about medicine: sometimes the most interesting lessons begin with a single patient. A puzzling presentation, a thoughtful observation, a question asked at just the right moment—these can become opportunities to learn something that stays with us. Congratulations, Dr. Fiestan, and thanks to everyone who participated or judged at this conference or the larger competition here last month. I hope we will continue to create plenty of opportunities for our trainees to share the cases, questions, discoveries, and ideas that make us all better physicians.