Recruitment efforts bear fruit

Wednesday of this week was Fellowship Match Day and we celebrated with two sets of groups in our department. First, those third-year internal medicine residents who chose to pursue subspecialty training found out where they will be heading next. Congratulations to all of you on the navigation of a nerve-wracking process, all while still completing […]

Thankfulness

In less than a week many of us will observe Thanksgiving. Before I go any further, a deep thank you to everyone who will care for our in-patient population, the same amount of people it takes to accomplish this work when we are not on holiday: physicians, APPs, nurses, EVS staff, cafeteria staff, maintenance teams, […]

Building community

If there has been any lesson from the last few years, it is that what we achieve on our own cannot compare to what we can achieve when we work together. We do this in small and large ways all the time. We see this when we are weighing the achievements of multidisciplinary research programs […]

Clinical excellence few can match

Being surrounded by top professionals delivering excellence on a regular basis can start to skew one’s perspective. The kind of excellence in clinical care we deliver to our patients, whether in outpatient clinics or on the wards, begins to feel common from familiarity, when it is anything but. It is not overstating the case that […]

The road ahead: Women in Medicine Month

The American Medical Association has designated September as Women in Medicine month. Last year, I asked a few of our women faculty to offer their thoughts on what the subject means to them. Last year’s writers revealed hope and talked about finding a supportive environment here in the Carver College of Medicine or in a […]

Further excellence in education

It is hard not to be regularly impressed with the ways in which our educators demonstrate excellence. To say that education innovation is just a part of our department’s culture almost diminishes the effort and creativity of the individuals who produce it. It is not just something in the air or the water that designs […]

Focus on the fundamentals

Let’s cover the issue that is probably of greatest interest to you first, namely where things stand with Mercy Iowa City right now. Things are relatively quiet while the bankruptcy process works its way through the courts, though more definitive answers are expected within the next few weeks. Some reports in the press and on […]

New VPMA, new opportunities, same great fundamentals

I think we all knew that the arrival of Dr. Denise Jamieson, our new dean and vice president for medical affairs, was likely to bring a new energy and a new direction for University of Iowa Health Care, but I doubt few had any idea such dramatic change would happen so quickly! There are still […]

Research is a team sport

Today our community will be feeling a little fuller than usual. RAGBRAI riders are arriving and will be with us until tomorrow morning when they start their final leg of a 500-plus mile journey. Tomorrow they will dip their front tires into the Mississippi River after pulling the rear ones from the Missouri River just […]

Recommitment to innovation

Welcome to the new academic year! It is an excellent time to set new intentions and goals for success, to build new habits, and to pursue new and better ways of fulfilling our department’s missions. What I continue to find amazing is that given the right conditions, good questions can foster whole new programs. With […]