To the YSM Community:
As we continue our strategic planning, “rich” has been the word most often used to describe the conversations in focus groups. Through September over 400 faculty, staff, students, and community members have signed up for 21 focus groups. Strategic planning drives us to focus on our future and to respond to disruption through innovation. Through this strategic planning, we maintain our agency and leadership in nurturing physicians and scientists, advancing discovery, and improving the health of all.
Another way many of you have chosen to promote our mission and values during a time of disruption has been through intentional acts of altruism and gratitude. Our musicians who gave pop-up concerts over the summer provide but one example of altruism. Faculty members have come forward to volunteer for mock study sections or review individual grants. Staff have creatively devised ways to cut back on costs for food or events without losing the sense of celebration or esprit de corps. Faculty who have received pivot funding take the time to send a note when they receive a grant.
In this vein, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a few of the positive developments across the School of Medicine over just the last few weeks, sharing good news as my expression of gratitude.
Education
- Under the leadership of Jeremy J. Moeller, MD, MSc, associate dean for curriculum, faculty content experts and trained facilitators are piloting a program in which students commit to a semester-long longitudinal small group experience. Groups engage in clinical reasoning, curiosity, and scientific inquiry, and learn how to effectively incorporate information resources, including evolving technologies. Over 70 first-year students signed up for 48 slots! Those who could not participate in the fall will be offered the opportunity in the spring. Thirty-five second-year students are also participating in this pilot.
- In this year’s graduation questionnaire, 91% of our graduating students said they were very satisfied (72.9%) or satisfied (18.6%) with faculty mentoring. This speaks to the value that our faculty place on coaching and mentoring the next generation.
Clinical
- As part of our aligned clinical strategic plan, Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) and Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have been rebuilding our transplant program. We were fortunate to recruit Hiroshi Sogawa, MD, MBA, as surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program. The liver transplant team has performed 18 transplants in the last four months.
- Our primary care clinicians and population health team are making progress in moving metrics of high value care. This calendar year the proportion of YNHHS patients with poorly controlled diabetes has declined 13% and the proportion of patients with controlled hypertension has increased 5%.
Research
- In August, Pew announced 22 new 2025 Scholars. Two, Steven Reilly, PhD, and Berna Sozen, PhD, hail from the Department of Genetics. Earlier in the year, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis faculty member Hualiang Pi, PhD, was named one of just 15 Searle Scholars.
- After several months of lagging funding from the National Institutes of Health, the gap between prior year and current year-to-date funding has narrowed both nationally and at YSM.
- Director Anna Arnal Estapé, PhD, is reinvigorating the Office of Team Science (OTS). OTS has received 38 letters of intent for the Program for Promotion of Interdisciplinary Science (POINTS) this cycle. This program provides up to $200,000 in seed money to multidisciplinary teams of YSM investigators to generate preliminary data and evidence of collaboration sufficient to obtain extramural funding. OTS is offering a new “Studio” program to enable YSM faculty who are developing large, multi-component NIH grant submissions (e.g., P30, P50, P01, U01, U19, U54, and similar complex funding mechanisms) to convene a panel of experts who will review proposals in the development stage.
Leadership
- Our crack government relations team patiently helps us to interpret various actions and bills and ensures that leaders advocate effectively for science and medicine in an unprecedented time.
- The communications team has doubled down on efforts to disseminate the work that you do with videos, podcasts, and thoughtfully written and placed articles.
- Each year the Office of Academic and Professional Development (OAPD) offers a day-long orientation for incoming faculty and a year-long course for new faculty. This year, OAPD has invited 320 second-year assistant professors and associate research scientists to participate in an evidence-based program designed at the University of Colorado called Better Together. The program has been shown to significantly impact outcomes such as burnout, imposter syndrome, perfectionism, lack of confidence, disorganization, and poor time management.
Over the fall, we will take the rich input from the initial survey and focus groups and begin to draft formally the revision of our strategic goals. We will have more definitive information about future federal funding of research. I have no doubt that our school will continue to thrive because of the stubborn optimism you demonstrate every day.
Sincerely,
Nancy J. Brown, MD
Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Medicine
C.N.H. Long Professor of Internal Medicine