The Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center
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.
First Quarter 2008 News
New Departmental Faculty Member/Program Leader Rubin Tuder-We are very pleased to announce the recruitment of Rubin Tuder, who will be the Hart Family Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Lung Translational Biology Program. Rubin has spent the past 6 years at Johns Hopkins where he was a Professor of Pathology (with a joint appointment in the Department of Medicine) and Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Pathology. Rubin has been an exceptionally productive, collaborative and well-funded investigator for many years. Rubin’s wife Annie, an expert in pediatric sleep disorders, will be joining the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics. Rubin and Annie’s recruitments were initiated and coordinated by Mark Geraci, Head, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and significantly facilitated by Dean Krugman, Steve Daniels (Chair, Department of Pediatrics) and National Jewish leadership physicians Greg Downey and Richard Martin.
Kudos-some Departmental members who have received special recognition in the past few months include:
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.
Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann (Endocrinology) was recently 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 an 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.
Two members of the Department of Medicine, who have DHHA as their primary home, have received significant, competitive extra-mural research funding. These individuals are Connie Price, Infectious Diseases, who received a $706,246 award from AHRQ for a project designed to reduce hospital-acquired infections and Pat Bosque, Neurology, who received a $322,821 award from the NIH for identifying pathogenic protein aggregates in ALS through autocatalytic misfolding.
Sterling West (Rheumatology) was recently voted by the University Hospital Medical Board “Outstanding Full-time Physician of the Year Award.”
Han Myint (Medical Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant) has been chosen by the University Hospital Medical Board to receive a “Pioneer Award” for his efforts in re-establishing the Bone Marrow Transplant Program.
John Messenger (Cardiology) was elected by the members of the medical staff to a three year term as a member of University Hospital Medical Board.
Two Departmental junior faculty members have recently received very competitive early career development awards. These are Josh Thurman (Renal) who received a two year award from the Schweppes Foundation and Judy Blaine (Renal) who received a three year Scientist Development Award from American Heart Association.
Housestaff Research-The Department is exceptionally pleased that many of its housestaff elect to actively participate in research endeavors while in the housestaff training program. Here are some examples of this participation:
Ten members of our housestaff presented their work at national meetings over the past three months. These houseofficers (the outstanding faculty co-authors/mentors not listed) include Jana Huskey (Effect of Simvastatin on Kidney Function Loss in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease, American Society of Nephrology), Richard Fuquay (The Effect of Transfusion on Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Adult Trauma Patients, American Society of Nephrology), Angela Desbiens ( Association Between Kidney Function and Risk of Subclinical Carotid Atherosclerosis, American Society of Nephrology), Ann Debourcey (Is Colonoscopy Enough?, Society of General Internal Medicine), Kelsey Gray (Hematologic Profile of Alcohol Dependent Patients with Invasive Pneumococcal Disease, American College of Chest Physicians), Anwar Dudekula (Five Year Experience with Tenofovir for Lamivudine Resistant Hepatitis B Virus, WFCR), Alap Shah (Contemporary Clinical Outcomes with Percutaneous Iliac Artery Revascularization, American College of Cardiology), Erin Kahler (Women with Type 2 Diabetes Perceive Low Intensity Exercise as a Greater Effort than Non-Diabetic Women, Johns Hopkins Neil R. Powe Symposium/Awardee), Jason Hatch ( Regional gene Expression Fingerprints of the Non-failing and failing Human Heart, American College of Cardiology) and Janice Huang (Different RV and LV response to Alpha-adrenergic Stimulation in Vivo, FASEB).
Thirty-four members of our housestaff submitted posters to the Department’s Fifth Annual Research Day. Three of these posters were voted as the most outstanding and received cash awards. These were: Jason Hatch (Regional Gene Expression Fingerprints of the Failing and Non-failing Heart with Drs Buttrick, Bristow and Lowes and Karin Nunley); Robert Koval (The Association and Financial Implications of Oral Bisphosphonate Intolerance and H. Pylori Status with Sterling West); and Mohammad Sarraf (Gene Expression Profiles in Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathies with Drs. Lowes, Brieke, Lindenfeld, Gary, Shakar, Wolfel, Cleveland and Bristow).
Virginia Borges, M.D. (Medical Oncology), an Associate Professor of Medicine, is one of our five Associate Directors of our Housestaff Training Program and orchestrates our Housestaff Research Program. Virginia reports that 16 residents have participated in our resident research curriculum since it began about nine months ago. The participants have completed human subjects protection and institutional review board training modules and will be completing biostatistics and conflicts of interest training modules.
Developments at Presbyterian St. Luke’s/The Colorado Health Foundation-the Department of Medicine has had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with P/SL and the Colorado Health Foundation. This relationship is based upon a shared primary care internal medicine training program with a total of 10 primary care housestaff each year for three years. P/SL has six outstanding full-time teaching physicians and our internal medicine housestaff provides internal medicine inpatient ward coverage at P/SL. Also, P/SL operates an excellent primary care clinic through which many of our housestaff rotate. Recently, P/SL and the Colorado Health Foundation announced a new hospitalist teaching program with addition of 5 hospitalist teaching faculty that will become part of the established teaching faculty. New faculty members that will be added to the full-time teaching faculty at P/SL for next year include: Rachel Groff, Sandy Durrani, Melanie Stickrath, Jon Manheim and Jenni Tamblyn.
Clinical and Research Update-the move to the new University Hospital facility at the Anschutz Medical Campus that was accomplished in June, 2007 has gone extremely well. The new University Hospital is running at nearly 100% capacity of its 400 beds. To date, 13 new beds have been opened and plans are underway to open an additional 10 beds in the immediate future. Additional University Hospital bed expansion plans are also being developed. The Department’s clinical growth continues on a sharp upward pace with current year to date clinical collections running 20% ahead of last year.
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 05/02/08
