Chairman's Welcome

The Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado consists of more than 600 fulltime faculty in its 14 Divisions. The Department has close educational and academic affiliations with University Hospital, Denver Health and Hospitals, the Denver VA Medical Center, National Jewish Hospital and two private hospitals in the HealthOne system (Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and Rose). The Department is proud of its rich tradition of excellence in research (top 15 ranking among all Departments of Medicine for NIH funding), clinical care (US News & World Report annual medical center issue rankings for the Department’s Pulmonary Critical Care, Renal Diseases, Endocrinology, Geriatrics, Rheumatology, Oncology, Gastroenterology, and Cardiology Divisions usually ranked in the top in the nation and, especially, medical education.

The Department has a strong commitment to excellence in housestaff education and is committed to providing a dynamic, vibrant environment, responsive to the ever-changing face of medical education. The leadership of our Housestaff Training program features several individuals at all stages of their careers that collectively represent more than 50 years of housestaff educational experience. Our Program is directed by Suzanne Brandenburg, a former Chief Medical Resident, who is a member of national educational organizations and key committees involved in reorganization of housestaff education. Suzanne has several years experience in a leadership role in our housestaff training program, and has authored important articles in optimizing house officer education. Suzanne is assisted by five associate Program Directors including: Jeff Glasheen (a former Chief Medical Resident and Director of our Hospitalist Program), Karen Chacko (a former Chief Medical Resident, an internist/generalist with several years experience in primary care housestaff education), Mel Anderson (an outstanding teacher with expertise in Evidence Based Medicine and lifelong learning), Virginia Borges (an oncologist and superior medical educator with special expertise in housestaff research and Warren Cappell (an endocrinologist with interests in housestaff mentoring). In addition, we have recently recruited a new Vice-Chair of Education to the Department (Eva Aagaard, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco) who will play a significant role in our housestaff educational program with regard to mentoring, career development and core competencies.

An exciting opportunity for housestaff at Colorado is the ability to work in an all-new medical center that opened in June, 2007. This center features state of the art hospitals (University Hospital and the Children’s Hospital, and, in a few years, a new VA Hospital), new research and educational buildings and a modern campus with all the amenities including restaurants, some retail and long-term housing. Of course we will continue to be closely affiliated with our other core institutions in which our housestaff obtain much of their education and clinical opportunities.

Our housestaff have ample opportunities for not only superior general internal medicine, hospitalist, primary care and critical care education, but also for participation in care of underserved populations, basic and translational research and international health care.

Robert Anderson, MD
Chairman of Medicine

7/30/07

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