The DOM Insider

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Message from the Chair Dear colleagues and friends, WashU’s Medical School graduation is May 12 and Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH former Director of the CDC, is the graduation speaker. Please participate in graduation if you can and recognize the accomplishments of our amazing medical students. Our Internal Medicine residency match was very successful and we are pleased to announce an outstanding group of 68 new interns joining our program. We look forward to welcoming them to the WashU community in June. We are also celebrating our senior residents and fellows who are graduating and entering the next phase of their careers. Fortunately for us, many of our students residents and fellows are staying on here in the Department. This edition of the DOM Insider features Susan Reeds, MD, a dedicated physician and a leading voice in weight management and obesity care. We encourage you to read about her important work and her efforts to assist patients with obesity, a chronic medical condition for which there are now very safe and effective new treatments. This is a challenging time on many fronts. There are a great many executive orders that are impacting Medical Schools and Universities across the US. The NIH, CDC, FDA, USAID and AHRQ have had significant cuts which creates a great deal of uncertainty for many of our faculty and staff with federally funded research. Some of our faculty have had their grants cut and several have experienced delays in getting grants reviewed, getting Notices of Awards and receiving funding. We are working closely with WashU leadership and monitoring these developments so that we can support our faculty and staff through these difficult times. We are committed to adapting and prioritizing our tripartite mission: excellence in patient care, research, and education while remaining good financial stewards. Given the significant uncertainty, we will do everything we can to communicate regularly and make decisions aligned with our values. Despite these challenges, our faculty, staff and trainees continue to do great things every day. Our clinicians are providing new treatments that save lives, our investigators are making ground breaking discoveries and our educators are developing new curriculum, methods and tools to mentor and train the next generation of physicians and scientists. We have much to be proud of. I hope you’ll take a few moments to learn more about the many achievements, awards and new initiatives happening in the department. The DOM newsletter highlights many faculty, staff and trainee contributions. Now more than ever, we thank you for your continued support of the Department of Medicine. Vicky Fraser, MD, Adolphus Busch Professor of Medicine, Chair, Department of Medicine