To the YSM Community:
In the most recent Beyond Sterling Hall, I reflected on Yale School of Medicine's commitment to fostering curiosity, critical inquiry, and meaningful dialogue across our community. Toward that end, one of our strategic goals is to increase opportunities to engage in thoughtful and respectful conversations on evolving and sometimes controversial topics in medicine, research, and education, while strengthening bidirectional communication.
To advance these efforts, we will convene a series of focus groups on the topic of “promoting critical inquiry.” These discussions will bring together faculty, staff, students, and trainees to explore how critical inquiry is fostered across our missions; identify barriers to open dialogue and respectful disagreement; and consider what training, resources, and institutional practices can best support the thoughtful examination of evolving ideas and evidence. These focus groups are not intended to address a specific evolving area or idea, but rather an opportunity to discuss how to have qualitative, constructive discussion in our work across the medical school.
Facilitated sessions take place during the late summer and early fall. I invite you to join in these conversations as we continue building a culture of trust, engagement, and intellectual openness, and to inform future initiatives.
If you are interested in participating, please sign up by Sept. 10.
Sincerely,
Nancy J. Brown, MD
Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Medicine
C.N.H. Long Professor of Internal Medicine