Dear UMass Medicine Team,
The summer is flying by with the academic year fast approaching! The beginning of a new academic year provides us with an annual opportunity to reflect on our own professional goals, growth, and development, but it also, and importantly allows us a renewed opportunity to reflect on how we can support the growth and development of those around us. Whether it is a medical student, resident, fellow, postdoc, junior faculty member, or junior staff, opportunities for these connections are around every corner of our campus. We are, at our core, a department grounded in four primary mission areas: patient care, research, education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. No matter what our specific area of focus is though, we all have the opportunity to be educators. To be mentors. To offer peer-to-peer support. To make meaningful connections with those who we walk the halls with and sit around the corner from every day.
In the Department of Medicine, a major driver of our work is our commitment and connection to our core values:
- Putting the patient at the center of all we do
- Discovery, innovation, and scholarship
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Teamwork and citizenship
- Professionalism and accountability
I encourage you all to renew your commitment to these values and reflect on how you can continue to connect with others and contribute to the vibrancy of our team and community.
One of the goals of our departmental communications is to help enhance and facilitate connections with our team through featured stories and spotlights. Please be sure to check out this month’s Chair’s Spotlight, where we will have an in-depth feature on the work of Kriti Mittal, MD, MS, a physician in Hematology/Oncology who specializes in genitourinary cancers. In the feature, Dr. Mittal discusses her path to becoming an oncologist and what inspires her. She also describes the work of the Immune-Related Adverse Events (irAE) Consortium, a group of which she is a member, which has assembled to address immune-related adverse events to improve patient care and promote research development.
This month, we will also highlight Brittany Tran, MD, in our Resident Spotlight. Dr. Tran is a third-year Internal Medicine Resident on the research track. In our monthly Q&A feature, Dr. Tran describes her clinical and research interests, what makes UMass Chan a great place for residency, and her favorite things to do in Worcester.
Additionally, we will highlight Vera Kazakova, MD, in our Fellow Spotlight. Dr. Kazakova is a Hematology/Oncology fellow whose clinical interests are primarily focused on breast and genitourinary oncology, as well as the field of immuno-oncology. In our monthly Q&A feature, we get to know Dr. Kazakova and learn about the unique opportunities she has had as a heme/onc fellow at UMass.
Later this month, we will feature Neil Marya, MD, as our Researcher Spotlight. Dr. Marya, who serves as a director of the Program in Digital Medicine, and director of the Digital Medicine Fellowship, is a clinician and researcher in the Division of Gastroenterology whose research is centered around artificial intelligence and machine learning models for image analysis, diagnostics, and digital pathology. His current work focuses on examining the utilization of artificial intelligence to improve the diagnosis of malignancies.
Finally, please be sure to check out Connect this Friday, which will include a preview of our 2024-2025 Medical Grand Rounds series. This year’s series will kick off on September 5 at noon in the Albert Sherman Center Auditorium with a presentation by Nobel laureate, Dr. Craig Mello! Stay tuned for more information.
I wish you all a wonderful end to your summer.
Sincerely,
Dave
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