We are entering an annual period of transition in Internal Medicine. As one academic year ends and we begin to prepare for another, a great deal of activity commences. Yesterday at Grand Rounds, our Chief Residents were recognized by the Department, which they have so dutifully served over the last year. I have been grateful to get to know this talented group and am confident that they will continue to impress us with their accomplishments. We are fortunate that two of them will remain members of our Department. In addition to their presentations yesterday, I shared some personal perspectives with them, and the Chiefs generously offer some parting thoughts for this space as well, which you can read here.
Also at Grand Rounds yesterday, Residency Director Dr. Manish Suneja announced the recipients of our annual education awards given to educators, residents, and staff. These recognitions remind us of our shared responsibility as educators and should motivate us to renew our commitment to preparing young minds and hands for research and healing. What we teach our students and trainees, the courses we draft and refine, the conferences we organize, undoubtedly has an incalculable return in the lives they will save, the discoveries they will make, and the students of the future that our trainees will themselves educate. Please join me in celebrating these young physicians and researchers and our other colleagues who make their growth and future greatness possible. A full list of awards and their recipients can be found here.
Sometimes our investment in future greatness can be directly measured. We were pleased to announce last week that the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center will be home to a five-year, $2.02 million training grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the NIH. Dr. Andrew Norris and I are Principal Investigators of this award and we will direct the use of these funds to support up to six post-doctoral trainees and fellows in the vital work being performed in the FOEDRC. You can read our announcement about this grant here.
The Department is also celebrating the success of Dr. David Stoltz and Dr. Joe Zabner for their receipt of a five-year, $3.63 million NIH grant to support their research into a repurposed therapeutic for cystic fibrosis. The progression of discovery in CF research made by Drs. Stoltz and Zabner, Dr. Mike Welsh, and many others in their labs over the years is a remarkable example of how a series of sometimes incremental steps accumulate or catalyze into tremendous advances. I look forward to what this new infusion of funding will produce. Our announcement about their R01 grant can be found here.
Finally, I was very fortunate to have attended our Department’s annual Emeritus Faculty Luncheon this week held in honor of our most treasured members, who served our faculty with distinction for over a generation. It occurred to me that our Emeritus Faculty represent an underutilized resource for our trainees. I believe instituting a regular “Wisdom Rounds” during which residents or fellows could spend an hour or so rounding with some of our most experienced physicians would be an incredibly valuable learning opportunity. I extended this invitation to our lunch guests and I am hoping that Wisdom Rounds might soon begin.
