Department of Medicine at the
University of
Colorado Denver
Third Quarter 2007 News
Bryan Haugen named new Head of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes Mellitus-We are exceptionally pleased to announce the appointment of Bryan Haugen, M.D. to the position of Head of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes effective 1 August 2007. Dr. Haugen was selected from among six outstanding individuals from five respected academic medical centers that visited and interviewed for the position. Dr. Haugen is currently a Professor of Medicine and holder of the Mary Rossick and Jerome H. Kern Endowed Chair in Endocrine Neoplasms Research within the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver and Associate Program Director of the Adult GCRC. Dr. Haugen is a graduate of the Mayo Medical School and completed housestaff and fellowship training at UCD. Dr. Haugen is funded by the National Institutes of Health through the RO1 mechanism for his work on thyroid cancer pathogenesis and has developed a nationally recognized Thyroid Cancer referral clinic that currently sees more than 1,500 patients from local, regional and national locales. Dr. Haugen is or has been on the Editorial Boards of Endocrinology, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and Thyroid and has published about seventy original articles, chapters and reviews. Dr. Haugen has recently been the recipient of recruitment efforts for senior leadership positions from other outstanding academic medical centers and we feel very fortunate to have Dr. Haugen as the new leader of our Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes.
University Hospital Move to the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion now completed-University Hospital at the 9th & Colorado Boulevard campus closed effective June 17th, 2007 and all inpatient care is currently being delivered in the new University Hospital and the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion about 5 miles to the east. The move went smoothly, and a new 400-bed Hospital and its Emergency Department have been running at or near full occupancy. The new Children’s Hospital will open on this campus in October, 2007. Effective in September, 2007, the Department's administrative offices will be re-located to this campus as well. The new campus is now about 75% completed and occupied with new research, clinical and educational facilities operational.
Departmental US News & World Report Rankings-The July, 2007 issue of US News & World Report ranked national Jewish Hospital as the top Respiratory/Pulmonary Hospital in the US. Departmental Divisions that were ranked in the top 50 in the US included: Pulmoanary-7th; Renal-13th, Endocrinology-18th; and Medical Oncology-35th.
Departmental Business Affairs-The Department recorded record clinical collections revenues in the just completed academic year of 2006-07 of 36.1 $M and research revenues of 82.1 $M.
Developments in the Division of Medical Oncology- In the ten months as Head of the Division of Medical Oncology, Gail Eckhardt has done a remarkable job in developing and implementing a vision for the future of the Division, in restructuring the Division’s administration, and in establishing excellent working relationships with UCH. Gail has also maintained and expanded her robust research program (PI or Co-PI on 7 NCI grants and numerous phase 1 and 2 studies), continued and further developed the Division’s diverse educational programs (PI on a T-32 grant and on a GME-certified Oncology Drug Development Fellowship), and continues to participate in national and local service (regular member of a NCI Study Section, member of the ASCO Board of Directors and a member of COMIRB). Gail has also completed recruitment of four outstanding new faculty members to the Division and additional recruitments are ongoing. Please extend your appreciation to Gail for her efforts and a warm welcome to these incoming faculty members:
• Wells Messersmith, M.D. will be joining us in the summer of 2007 as Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical Director, GI Malignancies Program at UCD. Dr. Messersmith attended Harvard Medical School and completed his residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently on the faculty. Dr. Messersmith has a K23 and R21 to study novel targeted agents in colorectal cancer.
• Ana Belen Oton, M.D. will be joining us soon as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, and her efforts will be at Denver Health and at UCD. Dr. Oton attended medical school in Caracas, Venezuela, followed by residency training at the University of Miami and fellowship training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Oton will focus on novel treatment strategies for lung cancer.
• Stephen Leong, M.D. will be joining us 1 July 2007 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. Leong received his medical degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland and then completed his residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia where he was also Chief Resident. Dr. Leong received fellowship training at UCD, and will pursue mechanism-based studies of IGF-1R antagonists alone and in combination with other agents in colorectal cancer. Clinically, Dr. Leong will participate in the Phase I and GI programs.
• Colin Weekes, M.D., Ph.D. will be joining us as an Assistant Professor of Medicine this summer. Dr. Weekes received his M.D. and Ph.D. (Cell Biology) from the University of Nebraska, followed by residency training at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Weekes will continue translational studies of novel agents in pancreatic cancer and will participate clinically in the GI and Phase I programs.
