The public face of our research strategy has undergone a makeover. A variety of factors were considered in our website redesign, not least was the input we solicited from all our faculty about what they would find useful. We wanted to create a platform that both conveniently organized and displayed the breadth of research within Internal Medicine and also one that provided resources and tools for our use. Under the guidance of Dr. Isabella Grumbach, Vice Chair for Research, we have introduced new features under our research banner, which we believe all will find valuable and interesting.
Here are just some of the recently implemented changes:
- Although we have a number of channels for sharing and celebrating important events and news in the Department, this particular page focuses only on research-related news, discoveries, and events across our divisions.
- We have organized our various research areas by subspecialty or research theme with links to individual labs and groups. It is our goal to create a page for every individual investigator in the department. If you have not yet contacted Brett Johnson to develop your lab or research group page, you can learn more about his services here.
- Every two weeks, using feeds from the NCBI at the NIH, this page lists all of the most recently indexed publications of Internal Medicine members.
- Openings for new research positions can be found on the Job Opportunities page.
- Finally, we have dedicated a portion of the research website for the exclusive use of our researchers. A list of resources, including grants management support and a regularly updated list of funding opportunities organized by category, are all available in one location. In addition, we have also developed a password-protected space via SharePoint where researchers can pose questions, collaborate and share information, all accessible with one’s HawkID login. Here, you can view examples of successful grant applications, graciously shared by your colleagues, download administrative templates, and reach out to other investigators for specific advice. We believe this space holds tremendous opportunity, and I strongly encourage you to use these resources.
As with any website, it remains a work in progress, but I am pleased with the impact that Dr. Grumbach and her team have made thus far. I encourage you to reach out to Dr. Grumbach or to me to let us know what else you would like to see as we strive to produce communication tools that effectively support our mission.
I would like to extend my congratulations to Drs. Phil Polgreen and Manish Suneja on their receipt of the University of Iowa Pilot Grant Program for Translational Stroke Studies. Together with Ted Herman, Dr. Enrique Leira, and the Signal Center, they have developed a platform that provides automatic and real-time data on an individual’s blood pressure, removing some of the technological barriers some people may experience in submitting this data themselves.
Although the Department has been rolling out introductions to the many faculty members who have joined us in July, I would particularly like to welcome Dr. Jorge Salinas, Clinical Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases as well as our new Hospital Epidemiologist. Dr. Salinas has extensive experience in the field, joining us from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an Intelligence Service Officer in the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Salinas as he continues his important work with us.
Last, I wanted to congratulate Dr. Greg Schmidt and his colleagues on the successful completion of the second Midwest Fellows Critical Care Ultrasound Symposium. More than 60 fellows and dozens of faculty members came from around the region for a two-day series of lectures and interactive training sessions designed to give fellows and practicing physicians guidance in performing point-of-care ultrasounds. The University of Iowa is a natural home for educating intensivists in this growing procedure, and I look forward to watching this symposium grow in the coming years.
