Dr. Seth Landefeld, MD, Professor and Chair, UAB Department of MedicineWelcome back to Letters to Tinsley, an update from your residency program where our motto, “Excellence Without Ego,” continues to inspire us to create the very best environment for medical training in the country.
All of us work hard, and all of us encounter frustrations—from snowballing regulations, to EMR hassles, to difficult situations in the lives of our patients and in our own lives. In this era when we hear much about increasing expectations and burnout, I have had a new insight: Doctors are heroes. Each of you is a hero to your patients, to your community, to your colleagues, and to your families. Let us celebrate this together while making our practices and our worlds better. I find W. Eugene Smith’s iconic photos of “Country Doctor” inspiring, as I do stories of what our residents and colleagues do at UAB each day.
In particular, two of our residents Drs. Channing Brown and Matt Burden became heroes for one of our faculty members who was facing squamous cell cancer. He wrote to inform me of the superb care he received, commending both physicians for providing “excellent, understandable information that left me at ease with what was being done for me throughout my hospital stay.” Moreover, Dr. Brown made sure that his discharge plan went smoothly, coordinating a home health agency to help with wound care at home. Needless to say, these doctors made a huge difference in his recovery, and I am thankful for their “heroic” efforts to take care of patients so brilliantly.
These days, so many people want to come to UAB that hospital occupancy is close to 100 percent. New patients often have to wait weeks or months to get into clinic. We now have more clinical programs ranked as “top programs” by U.S. News and World Report than any other program in the Southeast except for Duke, serving as both the preferred referral center as well as the safety net hospital for a huge population without access to another academic medical center.
In the Department of Medicine, we are working to improve access by increasing the number of our faculty who will be primarily focused on patient care. Our Division of Hematology and Oncology is doubling its faculty to build go-to programs in both malignant hematology and solid cancers. Our largest Division, Cardiology, has grown nearly 50% in the past five years—establishing the first adult congenital heart disease and cardio-oncology programs in Alabama. Our Divisions of Pulmonary and Critical Care and of Nephrology are not far behind, and we will double the size of Gastroenterology and Hepatology over the next 5 years. If you ever have difficulty having a patient seen at UAB, let me know – we will make it happen!
We are thrilled with the impressive research that is consistently published in high impact journals. In fact, the School of Medicine’s first two “Featured Discovery” reports highlight investigators from the Department who are pushing the boundaries in pulmonary and cardiovascular medicine: Steve Rowe, MD, MPH, in cystic fibrosis and Ganesh Halade, PhD, in exploring the spleen’s role in heart failure. Our NIH-funded research programs have grown 40% in 5 years and are now ranked 16th among all departments of medicine.
I am extremely proud to report that your Program Director Lisa Willett, MD, was elected president-elect of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine. APDIM represents program directors, faculty and administrative coordinators who are involved in internal medicine residency programs. Dr. Willett is exactly the type of thoughtful, purposeful leader this organization needs to guide those with the important responsibility of training the next generation of physicians.
The UA Board of Trustees has approved the establishment of the Gustavo R. Heudebert, MD, MACP, Endowed Faculty Scholar; and Jason Morris, MD, has been appointed the inaugural holder of the scholar position. I hope each of you will continue to join me in giving until we have made this an endowed professorship. We can do this together by honoring Tavo with our gifts. Consider joining me in giving monthly.
I’d love to have you visit and see for yourselves how your residency continues to thrive. I look forward to welcoming you back home any time.
Best regards,
C. Seth Landefeld, M.D.
Professor and Chair, UAB Department of Medicine