October 25, 2018
Hello,
This past Monday, our clinical leaders (clinical chairs and other program directors) and the deans of the six UTHealth schools met for a clinical retreat.
The day was a reminder of the wealth of talent we have at UTHealth—wonderful deans and outstanding clinical leaders—people committed to making a difference in Houston and beyond.
It also was a reminder that our clinical leaders are unified in their commitment to outstanding clinical care in the context of an academic health science center made much stronger by educating the next generation of physicians and scientists and creating new knowledge to improve that care. Part of the day was spent talking about our hospital partnerships with Memorial Hermann and Harris Health. The overwhelming sense from the day was one of optimism and a reminder that the almost 1,600 physicians at UTHealth bring great value to these partnerships.
The six schools (and deans) are remarkably collaborative—working together to promote novel programs for inter-professional education and to support faculty collaborations in research. Two highlights of the day were presentations by Dr. Jiajie Zhang, dean of our School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI), and Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, dean of our School of Public Health (SPH).
Dr. Zhang joined the UTHealth faculty in 1998 and became the dean of SBMI in 2013. In addition to leading the only School of Biomedical Informatics in the country, Dr. Zhang is a very productive investigator with research interests in biomedical informatics, cognitive science, human-centered computing, electronic health record usability and workflow, and medical decision-making.
Dr. Boerwinkle, who joined the UTHealth faculty in 1986, has been dean of the SPH since 2016. He is an internationally known population geneticist who has led groundbreaking research on the connection between genes and health. Our SPH is unique in the United States —a single school with six campuses throughout the state (Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Brownsville), promoting collaboration statewide, with special expertise in genetic analyses, health promotion and behavioral sciences, health services data, and Hispanic health. We are proud that our SPH is the #1 school of public health in the nation for training medical students in public health (through both four- and five-year MD/MPH programs).
To kick off the retreat, Dr. Zhang spoke on “Disruptive Technology in Healthcare Artificial Intelligence and Robots” and Dr. Boerwinkle talked about “Contemporary Genomics and Precision Health .”
Please join me in thanking our clinical leadership, the many clinicians and investigators who work at UTHealth, my fellow deans—and of course, our President Dr. Giuseppe Colasurdo.
Warm regards,
Barbara
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