Colleagues,
I am excited to announce the launch of the Division of Health Systems Science in the Department of Medicine, effective June 1st. The goals of the Division will be to advance clinical research, education, and practice in quality, safety, the structures and processes of health care delivery, high-value care and evidence-based practice, professionalism, ethics, interprofessional care, leadership, and systems thinking. The new Division will be ably led by Dr. Kathleen Mazor, Professor, Department of Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School. Kathy is presently the Associate Director of the Meyers Health Care Institute.
Trained in psychometrics, Dr. Mazor's research interests include physician-patient communication, health literacy, disclosure of medical errors, and decision-making. She has led and collaborated on numerous studies investigating the impact of various strategies for communicating health-related information to patients and the public. A consistent theme in her research is to understand the patient's perspective on health and healthcare. Dr. Mazor has extensive experience in developing and validating instruments to measure knowledge, attitude, and beliefs in patients and providers.
In addition to her scientific excellence, Dr. Mazor has a long history of engaging and mentoring clinicians in research, and a longstanding close connection with the Department of Medicine. Given her national reputation, Dr. Mazor is well suited to help us recruit a dynamic long-term leader of the Division, either from outside the institution or internally.
Please join me in thanking UMass Chan and UMass Memorial Health for embracing and investing in our vision. We will be welcoming Dr. Mazor and likely several other new faculty members into the Division in the coming months. Please stay tuned for more details as the summer rolls on!
Sincerely,
Dave
Recently, Dr. Gerald Chan, Chancellor Collins, and Dean Flotte joined us for a presentation of UMass Chan’s Program in Digital Medicine (PDM) at Year One. In a tour de force of an overview, the co-directors of Drs., Neil Marya, Honghuang Lin, and Apurv Soni, introduced the mission, vision, and people that constitute PDM. Other presenters included Drs. Tenes Paul, Sakeina Howard-Wilson, and Andreas Fillipaios. Eric Ding, Carly Herbert, Edith Mensah Otabil were among other speakers in attendance. Learn more.
Congratulations to the GI team who will present this month at this year’s Digestive Disease Week (DDW) conference. Presenting faculty include David Cave, M.D., and Neil Marya, M.D.. Additionally, faculty co-authors include Jeanmarie Houghton, M.D., Ph.D., and Christopher Marshall, M.D.. Several fellows presenting will be Prashant Rau, M.D., Ahmed Adbelfattah, M.D., Dimitri Belkin, M.D., Zachary Devore, M.D., Mark Hanscom, M.D., Peter Sullivan, M.D., Arslan Talat, M.D., from GI, and Courtney Stead, M.D. from Internal Medicine.
It is with great honor to announce that Dr. Alan C. Mullen has been appointed to Academic Chief of the GI Division. He will join Dr. Christopher Marshall, Clinical Chief, and form our long-term leadership team for the Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Mullen has been celebrated as an educator and hepatologist, and received numerous awards for his efforts. He currently serves as a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, and the Human Cell Atlas. As a scientist, he has focused his lab research efforts on areas that can lead to the treatment of liver fibrosis and liver failure, including the role that noncoding RNAs contribute to these processes. Please join us in welcoming this nationally-recognized physician-scientist and educator to the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Kate Fitzgerald’s proposal for the 2021-2022 Pilot Project Program “STING Agonism for the Treatment of COVID-19” has been chosen for funding as part of the UMass Clinical and Translational Science Award Pilot Project Program. Additionally, Laura Gibson, M.D., will be leading a study of cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission in group childcare, education and household settings in collaboration with Moderna, Inc.
Thank you to Pang-Yen Fan, M.D., for delivering the honorary Last Lecture of the 2022 UMass Chan Medical School Educational Recognition Awards celebration that was held on Tuesday, April 26, to honor achievement by faculty of the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and T.H. Chan School of Medicine.
Congratulations Howard J. Sachs, M.D., for receiving one of the most prestigious medical school teaching honors, the Lamar Soutter Award For Excellence in Medical Education presented by Dean Flotte. Dr. Howard’s impact on the medical school, the curriculum, and the students for his “Patient’s Course” was recognized and spoken about eloquently by the Dean.
Coming up this month is Innate Immunity Day 2022: A celebration in honor of Dr. Robert Finberg on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. I hope you all join us in celebrating Dr. Finberg and his contributions to UMass Chan and UMass Memorial with a day of keynote speakers and talks from UMass Chan leadership, colleagues, and friends. Dr. Finberg was also recently posthumously awarded the Presidential Award from the Worcester Chapter of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Please take a moment to check out our recent Chair’s Spotlight, featuring David Cave, M.D., Ph.D., and his recent efforts in researching the effectiveness of video capsule endoscopy.
I would also like to congratulate Drs. Megan Orzalli, Read Pukkila-Worley, Stuart Levitz, Lisa Lewis, and Liraz Galia on their recently awarded grants.
I am excited to announce our new faculty members in the department. Please join me in welcoming Soroosh Kiani, MD, Mary Flynn, MD, Alan Mullen, MD, Chief, Laurie Pearson, MD, Yurv Aleksandrovich, MD, Shiv Sutaria, MD, Nancy Anoruo, MD, Aanchal Gupta, MD, Sunita Puri, MD, and Rebecca Kowaloff, MD. Thank you to all of the Committee Members and Interviewers who contributed so much time and expertise to recruiting these fantastic new faculty members!
I would like to extend my congratulations to our faculty on recent appointments and promotions. Brian Ferrara, M.D., Jonathan Costa, D.O., and Tianyuan Peng, Ph.D., have been recently appointed to Assistant Professors. Randall Morse, M.D., F.A.C.P., C.M.D., has been promoted to Associate Professor, Afroz Saquib, M.D., has been promoted to Assistant Professor, and Odalys Croteau, M.D., has been appointed to Instructor. Lastly, Roberto Caricchio, MD, a newly recruited professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine, has been named the Myles J. McDonough Chair in Rheumatology.