June 08, 2017
Hello,
Even though summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, graduation always feels like the start of summer to me. I hope you all are having a wonderful start to summer and have plans for some vacation over the next few months. That said, things at the medical school have not slowed down.
President Colasurdo and I recently had a lovely lunch with our school’s namesake, Mrs. Kathrine McGovern, and members of the McGovern Foundation. We were asked to present an update on the McGovern Medical School, reviewing how we are using their generous gift. We were delighted to highlight our McGovern Scholars, Dr. Scott Lane, Dr. William Margolin, Dr. Vasanthi Jayaraman, Dr. Jun Liu, and Dr. Yang Xia, as well as our McGovern Chairs, Dr. Holger Eltzschig, interim chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, and Balveen Kaur, Ph.D., who joined us from Ohio State University on June 1 and is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery– stay tuned for the official announcement of her arrival.
Mrs. McGovern most generously gave me a very thoughtful book edited by Dr. McGovern, “The Doctor as a Person,” which examines both the profession and the person as told by 12 contributors.
Even though it seems like we just had commencement, it’s not too early to start planning for next year. With this in mind, leaders of Admissions and Student Affairs and I met with Matthew Whited, president of the Class of 2018, to start considering featured speakers.
Speaking of medical education, I joined Drs. Margaret McNeese and Dana McDowelle from Admissions and Student Affairs to meet with Rice University faculty and community friends to discuss the possibility of starting an accelerated medical school program for select outstanding Rice undergraduates. A similar program is already in place between Rice and Baylor College of Medicine. More to come.
Last week I was in New York attending the board meeting of the Rockefeller-endowed China Medical Board. A nonprofit organization that got its start in 1914, the independent American foundation targets grants and support to advance health in Asian countries through strengthening medical, nursing, and public health research and education. Dr. Tom Nasca, CEO of the ACGME, was an invited guest at the meeting. I took the opportunity to chat with him about resident milestones, the Next Accreditation System (NAS), and the clinical learning environment review (CLER) visits. I was pleased that he was interested in a dialog and open to questions and suggestions.
I also recently met with The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST). As a member of the group’s O’Donnell Awards Committee, along with Dr. Brendan Lee (Baylor College of Medicine) and Dr. Helen Piwnica-Worms (MD Anderson Cancer Center), we started to review outstanding nominees for this year’s prize in medicine. Finalists for the prize will next move to external scientific review and selection.
Back here at the medical school, I had a great time last evening at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s annual mixer, a networking event that allows participants from across the school to meet in an informal setting and get to know each other.
We are hopefully on the homestretch with final budget meetings for each department—thanks to each of our chairs and DMOs.
External reviews are a wonderful way for a department or program to review current state and consider strategic direction and needs going forward. They are a perfect venue to highlight accomplishments and strengths and to get feedback from independent reviewers. I am hoping to have external reviews for all of our departments over the coming years. Dr. Gerard Francisco, chair of our Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, asked to have an external review of his department. He and his colleagues recently hosted three national leaders in PM&R who spent two days learning and thinking about our program. We received a glowing report that highlighted the many strengths of the department, said wonderful things about our chair, and offered clear suggestions for areas of growth going forward. I am very proud of Dr. Francisco, his faculty, our remarkable program, and great partnership with TIRR and CEO Carl Josehart. Thanks for leading a wonderful and nationally recognized program.
Today I am meeting with Dr. Heidi Kaplan, chair of the Faculty Senate. I look forward to hearing an update on the Senate’s agenda and her plans for TED talks from the school.
After some rainy weather, let’s hope for a sunny weekend!
Warm regards,
Barbara
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