The Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center
Third Quarter 2008 News
RICK JOHNSON, M.D., NEW HEAD, DIVISION OF RENAL DISEASES AND HYPERTENSION-Richard "Rick" Johnson will assume the position as the Temple Hoyne Buell/National Kidney Foundation Endowed Professor and Head, Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension within the Department effective 1 October 2008. Dr. Johnson has been the J. Robert Cade Endowed Professor and Head of the Renal Division at the University of Florida for the past five years. Dr. Johnson is widely regarded as one of the preeminent academic nephrologists in the United States and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Johnson has been an invited speaker and named lecturer at numerous prestigious universities/medical centers both within the United States and abroad. Dr. Johnson is clinically very active and has an exceptionally well-funded and productive research program that studies the mechanisms of hypertension and the pathophysiology of chronic kidney diseases and Dr. Johnson has published over 350 articles in excellent peer-reviewed journals. Friends and colleagues know Rick as gregarious, affable, energetic collaborator and Rick has already established effective lines of communication and collaboration not only with members of our Renal Division but also with other faculty leaders on campus.
CTSI-The Health Science Center’s CTSI grant was awarded at 76.2 $ million (15.2 $ million/year for five years) and began effective 1 May 2008. This represents about a 4 $ million increment over the ongoing programs the CTSI replaces (Adult and Pediatric GCRCs, K 12 program etc). Many of the Department of Medicine’s faculty have been major contributor’s to this CTSI application/program with four of the five sections being lead by members of the Department (Marc Moss, Pulmonary, Education/Training; Andy Kramer, Health Care Policy and Research, Community Engagement and Translation; Bob Eckel, Endocrinology, Clinical Translation; and Mark Geraci, Pulmonary, Technology).
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT RANKINGS -Once again, National Jewish is ranked first in Lung/Pulmonary. Four of the Department’s Divisions were ranked in the top 25 nationally including: Lung/Pulmonary-11th, Renal-15th, Endocrinology/Metabolism-20th and Rheumatology-25th.
INCREASING CLINICAL REVENUES-the Department closed the 2007-08 fiscal year with total clinical collections and clinical contract income of more than 41 $ million. This represents an approximate 14% increase over last year and continues the Department’s five year pattern of setting a new, historic benchmark high annually. This represents tremendous effort on the part of our clinically active faculty to build and maintain the Department’s clinical enterprise.
Kudos-some Departmental members that have received special recognition in the past few months include:
Wells Messersmith (Medical Oncology) was the PI on a successful Aptium GI Cancer Consortium Award which will bring funding and opportunities for clinical trials participation to the School.
John Rumsfeld (Cardiology/VA) was recently named to Chair the Management Board of the American College of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Data Registries. In this position, Dr. Rumsfeld will oversee a large bank of extensive registries which involves 70 FTE and an annual operating budget of 20 $ million.
Mike Glode (Medical Oncology) received an American Society of Clinical Oncology Statesman Award for 2008 and was selected to Chair the Internet Services Committee of the Society.
Jeanette Guerrasio (General Internal Medicine) and Jennifer Dorosz (Cardiology) have been selected to participate in the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine Teaching Scholars Program for 2008-09.
Alex Wiseman (Renal) is our new Medical Director of Renal Transplantation effective 1 July 2008. We are exceptionally pleased to have Alex in this role. Please also extend your congratulations and sincere appreciation to Larry Chan (Renal) who, over the past 30 years, has worked exceptionally hard and well to develop our Renal Transplant Program and who is our new Director of Renal Transplantation Research and Development.
Steve Ross and Lisa Schilling (General Internal Medicine) have received a one-year Task Order from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to assess the factors associated with primary care practices participating in electronic Health Information Exchange (HIE) within their communities.
Mike Holers (Head, Rheumatology) will receive the 2008 American College of Rheumatology’s Distinguished Basic Scientist Award that will be presented at the College’s annual meeting in October, 2008. This is the highest research award given by the American College of Rheumatology and one award is given each year. This award reflects very positively on Mike’s many years of outstanding research contributions, many of which deal with the pathophysiologic role of complement.
Suzanne Brandenburg (General Internal Medicine; Director Housestaff Training Program), has been chosen as the recipient of the second annual School of Medicine’s Professionalism Award. This award will be presented at the School of Medicine’s Matriculation Ceremony on 14 August 2008 and is given annually to a School of Medicine faculty member. The award is given in recognition of Suzanne’s exemplary academic and institutional citizenship, consistent personal example of the highest standards of professionalism and emphasis on professionalism across all levels of the residency program.
Jeff Glasheen (General Internal Medicine; Head Hospitalist Program) is the Editor of The Hospitalist, the monthly publication of The Society of Hospital Medicine. Each edition contains a thoughtful editorial by Jeff. The July, 2008 edition also contains a nice review of how to reduce urinary catheter use and complications by Kristin Furfari (Hospital Medicine Fellow) and Heidi Wald (General Internal Medicine).
Judy Zerzan (General Internal Medicine) has been selected as a 2008-2009 Health and Aging Policy Fellow. This program has a goal of providing a cadre of geriatric and gerontology professionals who can contribute to the health care policy arena in the geriatrics field. The fellowship provides financial and educational support as well as a leadership development program for one year and is administered by the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene Inc. /Columbia University. The Program is funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies.
Two areas, palliative care and integrative medicine, are difficult to get funded by the NIH mechanism and have a shortage of randomized controlled trials. Jean Kutner (Head, General Internal Medicine) will have an article entitled "Massage Therapy vs. Simple Touch to Improve Pain and Mood in Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Trial" in an upcoming issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. This trial was funded by an R01 from the NCCAM.
Second Quarter 2008 News
Outstanding 2008 Housestaff Match- the new first year internal medicine houseofficers that will be joining us on 23 June 2008 represent an outstanding group of more than 50 individuals. These incoming physicians have had their medical education at 36 medical schools from across the nation while twelve outstanding students will be coming from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In terms of overall quality, we matched more in the top 100 of our list and matched higher on our list than in many years. The hard work of Suzanne Brandenburg, our Program Director, and her outstanding staff of Sherry Berka and Kristy Hull, our Associate Program Directors including Karen Chacko, Virginia Borges, Jeff Glasheen, Mel Anderson and Warren Cappell as well as our current Chief Residents including Kelsey Gray, Chris Lieu, Eddie Stenehjem, Justin Hopkin, Geoffrey Connors and Rachel Groff were all instrumental in this excellent match. The efforts of all of our housestaff who attended the social event, morning report, noon conference and housed and talked with prospective candidates was terrific and sincerely appreciated. Many thanks to our former Program Director, Bill Kaehny, who has continued his involvement with Housestaff recruitment.
Kudos-some Departmental members that have received special recognition in the past few months include:
Hugo Rosen (GI/Hepatology), the Waterman Endowed Professor and Head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, was recently elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Bill Hiatt (Geriatrics), the Novartis Endowed Professor and President of the Colorado Prevention Center, is Chair of the Cardiovascular and Drugs Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration and appeared on 60 Minutes on 17 February 2008 to discuss the FDA advisory committee process.
Mike Bristow (Cardiology), former the Head of the Division of Cardiology, received this year’s Discoverers Award, the highest honor that can be bestowed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann (Endocrinology) was named the 2008 recipient of the Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship from the American Association for Cancer Research. This annual award is given to recognize an outstanding scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the field of cancer research and who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of minority investigators in cancer research.
Gail Eckhardt (Medical Oncology), the Stapp-Harlow Endowed Professor and Head, Division of Medical Oncology, was recently awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award for 2008. This award was established to recognize ASCO founders, presidents and board members for their outstanding volunteer efforts. The award is presented at ASCO’s annual meeting which attracts about 30,000 attendees from around the world.
Charles Dinarello (Infectious Diseases) was one of 50 individuals elected as a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) associate member. This is a particularly singular honor inasmuch as only eight individuals outside Europe were elected.
Drs. Larry Feinberg, Walter Briney and Sterling West were honored at the annual meeting of the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Physicians. Larry Feinberg (General Internal Medicine) was elected Governor of the Colorado Chapter for the upcoming year. Walter Briney (Rheumatology) was the recipient of the Colorado Chapter’s Community and Volunteer Award in recognition of many years of outstanding clinical care, educational expertise, volunteerism and professionalism to the state of Colorado. Sterling West (Rheumatology) received the Colorado Chapter’s Laureate Award which is given annually to an outstanding member of the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Physicians that demonstrates excellence in medical care education or research and in service to their community.
Joel Levine (Gastroenterology) and Bob Gibbons, a member of our clinical faculty and Head of Medicine at St. Joe’s were elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians.
Yang Chen (Gastroenterology/Hepatology) will receive a special “President’s Award” at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. One award is given annually based upon a combination of demonstrated excellence in endoscopic skills, educational abilities, endoscopic research mentoring and service to the organization.
Sonia Flores (Pulmonary/Critical Care) received (with Karen Jonscher) an NIH grant for the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity. This grant is intended to attract and retain underrepresented students in the biomedical sciences. Sonia, in addition to her NIH-funded RO1 research, is also Director of Graduate Experience for Multicultural Studies at UC Denver.
Ingrid Binswanger (General Internal Medicine) has been selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholars Program. This highly competitive program selects fifteen scholars each year from a national pool. This program provides salary and $300,000 support for three years and lists among its alumni many current national leaders in Divisions of General Internal Medicine and health outcomes research.
Marvin Schwarz (Pulmonary/Critical Care) is this year’s recipient of the American Thoracic Society’s Trudeau Medal. This award recognizes lifelong contributions to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases through leadership in research, education and clinical care. Marvin led our Pulmonary/Critical Care Division for many years and played a major role in bringing and maintaining the Division to a nationally prominent level.
Josh Thurman (Renal/Rheumatology) was recently notified of his receipt of his first RO1 award. Earlier this year Josh was the recipient of a very competitive two year research award from the Schweppes Foundation. Josh is a good example of an outstanding individual who benefits from inter-Divisional collaboration. Josh’s primary home and the Division where he does his educational and clinical work is Renal while Josh initiated (in collaboration with Mike Holers) and now carries out his research work in the Rheumatology Division.
Paul Bunn (Medical Oncology/Cancer Center) was the recipient of an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award for 2008. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of ASCO founders, presidents and board members for their voluntary contributions to ASCO. Among many contributions to ASCO, Dr. Bunn served as President of ASCO.
Moshe Levi-the Vice Chair, Research of the Department will be the Chair of the NIH Cell and Molecular Biology of the Kidney Study Section of the National Institutes of Health. This is a singular honor and reflects very positively on Moshe’s scholarship and research accomplishments.
Tom Petty (Pulmonary/Critical Care) is a long-time Departmental faculty member, former Head of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine and well-known for his pioneering developments in the areas of acute respiratory distress syndrome and comprehensive chronic lung diseases management. Tom recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American College of Chest Physicians. Tom was acknowledged in this award as “the father of pulmonary medicine.”
Jay Burton (Gastroenterology/Hepatology) was recently named as the new Director of the University of Colorado Liver Transplant Program. Jay has been on our faculty for three years and has done an outstanding job as a clinician/educator.
Clinical and Research Activities–University Hospital remains relatively full and the inpatient general medical/surgical beds are running at more than 95% occupancy. In the year to date, clinical collection and contract income for the Department exceeds any previous year by 20%. Research income for the current year to date is running ahead of last year by 3-5%. Collectively, these excellent performances reflect very positively on the hard work of our dedicated faculty.
CTSA Application-Ron Sokol, the Director of our institutional CTSA application has been notified that the application has received an outstanding priority score (143) for the application that was submitted, for the first time, in October, 2007. Until the Council meets in May, 2008, the funding will not be known for sure but the preliminary reports are favorable. Many thanks to Ron Sokol, the Associate Program Directors (Bill Hay-Childhood/Maternal Health, John Steiner-Education, Bob Eckel-Discovery Translational Research, Andy Kramer-Community Engagement and Mark Geraci-Technology), to the many faculty members throughout the Health Sciences Center and elsewhere who actively and generously participated on key committees and in many other ways.
New Fellows of the American College of Physicians-the following faculty members have been elected as Fellows in the American College of Physicians in 2008: Eva Aagaard, Suzanne Brandenburg, Karen Chacko, Eric Coleman, David Collier, Lisa Cyran, Steve Dreskin, Mark Earnest, Jim Fisher, Joel Garcia, Jeff Glasheen, Mike Glode, Rene Gonzalez, Bryan Haugen, Stuart Linas, Carlin Long, Tom MacKenzie, Bob Mason, Luisa Mestroni, Han Myint, Randall Reves, David Spiegel, John Steiner, Jim Trotter, Howard Weinberger, and Marty Zamora.
To see news from previous quarters, please click here
Departmental National Leadership Positions
The Department is blessed with a talented faculty. Four of our Professor faculty members have, either currently or in the past 1 - 2 years, held significant national leadership positions. These include:
Robert Eckel, MD - President, American Heart Association
Tomas Berl, MD - Past-President, American Society of Nephrology
E. Chester Ridgway, MD - Past-President, Endocrine Society
Paul Bunn, MD - Past-President, American Society of Clinical Oncology
Volunteer Clinical Faculty List
- A new listing for the volunteer clinical faculty has been launched. Volunteer clinical faculty can be looked up here or the link to the left.
Mission
Building on a rich tradition of excellence, we are moving forward with new initiatives designed to build on the strengths of our faculty. We take our three-part mission of patient care, medical education and research seriously.
- Education
- The Department’s educational initiatives are overseen by Eva Aagaard, M.D., Vice Chair of Education. Eva is a creative and experienced medical educator who not only provides direction for all of our educational programs, but also directly oversees our student programs. The Department has a rich tradition of excellence in housestaff and fellowship education. Suzanne Brandenburg, M.D., directs our Housestaff Program which has categorical, primary care, hospitalist and research training tracks. Suzanne is very ably assisted by five Associate Housestaff Program Directors including Mel Anderson, M.D. (lifelong learning and mentoring), Virginia Borges, M.D. (housestaff research), Jeff Glasheen, M.D. (hospitalist training), Karen Chacko, M.D. (primary care training) and Warren Cappell, M.D. (mentorship and specialty training). The department has 13 T32 fellowship training grants and supervises a K30 Masters and PhD program in Clinical Sciences.
- Clinical Care
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Clinical care is provided at six hospitals affiliated with our training program: University Hospital (tertiary referral), Veterans Affairs Medical Center (comprehensive in- and outpatient veterans care), Denver Health Medical Center (underserved primary and referral care and level 1 trauma care), two excellent private hospitals (Rose Medical Center and Presbyterian-St. Luke’s) and National Jewish Hospital (pulmonary, immunological and mycobacterial care). Active hospitalist and intensivist services provide 24/7 care and education at the core hospitals. Experiences at these centers insures exposure to diverse clinical challenges, patient populations, and practice settings.
The University Hospital,along with the entire University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and The Children’s Hospital, has recently moved to an entirely new 4 billion dollar Anschutz Medical Center at the former site of the Fitzsimons Army Center in Aurora Colorado. A new 390 bed hospital, a seven story ambulatory facility, Cancer Center, Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute, Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes Mellitus, Native American Health Center as well as a host of educational and research facilities are now fully operational on this campus.
The Department’s clinical revenues are expanding at a 10% annual rate and have reached record highs for each of the past five years.
- Research
- The Department has a very successful track record in biomedical research.
We were most recently ranked 16th nationally in research funding from the NIH. Faculty
members within the Department of Medicine currently are the principal investigators
on more than $85 million of research funding. Department of Medicine faculty
are also the lead investigators on an additional $14.5 million of inter-disciplinary
center funding. Collectively, grants obtained by the Department of Medicine
faculty account for 30% of all School of Medicine research funding. The Department will move into all new research space at the Anschutz campus in the spring of 2008.
Each Division has a diverse and vibrant externally funded research program and fellowship training program. Our Department has active research programs for not only our faculty but also for our fellows, housestaff and medical students. The Department also has an innovative program in Clinical Sciences leading to either a Master or a PhD degree. In addition, we have 33 endowed Chairs ($65 million), the endowed Temple Hoyne Buell Heart Center, and a federally-designated Cancer Center enabling us to pursue new understanding and treatment of diseases that are afflicting millions of Americans. - Our Faculty
- Our faculty is our strength. We currently have 500 full-time faculty (about 95 of these are PhDs) and 600 volunteer faculty. There are many faculty who hold leadership positions in their national and international specialty societies and on editorial boards, as well as those faculty who are members of prestigious medical research societies, such as the Association of American Physicians (31), American Society for Clinical Investigation (34), Western Association of Physicians (42), and the Western Society for Clinical Investigation (70). There are also an impressive number of Department faculty who hold leadership positions at the School of Medicine, the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, and the affiliated institutions.
Our Current Divisional Leadership:
Allergy and Clinical Immunology - Andrew Fontenot, MD
Cardiology - Peter Buttrick, MD
Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology - Curt Freed, MD
Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes - Bryan R. Haugen, MD
Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Hugo Rosen, MD
Geriatrics - Robert Schwartz, MD
Health Care Policy and Research - Andrew Kramer, MD
Hematology - Robert Allen, MD and Sally Stabler, MD (Co-division heads)
Infectious Diseases - Thomas Campbell, MD - interim
General Internal Medicine - Jean Kutner, MD
Medical Oncology - Gail Eckhardt, MD
Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine - Mark Geraci, MD
Renal Diseases and Hypertension - Tomas Berl, MD
Rheumatology - V. Michael Holers, MD
We are very proud of these accomplishments and hope you will spend some time reviewing the information provided. We are looking forward to the continued evolution of our department as we strive to become the best we can be. Thank you for visiting our site.
Robert J. Anderson, M.D.
Meiklejohn Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
Last update 08/15/08
