At the recent College of Medicine – Tucson General Faculty Meeting, hosted May 8 in the University of Arizona Cancer Center’s Kiewit Auditorium, nine new faculty members and two more who’ve excelled as mentors were recognized from the Department of Medicine.
Great Mentors
In all seven faculty members were presented with 2018-19 Mentorship Awards, including:
Emad Elquza, MD (who was not present), an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and medical director of the UA Cancer Center – North Campus and Orange Grove Campus; and- Sairam Parthasarathy, MD,* professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and director of the UA Health Sciences Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences and Banner – University Medicine Center for Sleep Disorders.
Fifteen other faculty members received honorable mentions.
* Dr. Parthasarathy also received a mentorship award from the college in 2016 (see link at bottom of this article). Photos below courtesy of UAHS Biocommunications (click to enlarge).
For more photos from the meeting, see the COM-T Facebook webpage here or visit its Photo Galleries webpage here.
New Faces
New faculty members who started from February through April 2019 include (with department preceding):
- Anesthesiology | Joao Carvalho de Souza, PhD, research assistant professor
- Cellular and Molecular Medicine | Methajit Methawasin, PhD, research assistant professor
- Emergency Medicine | Anna Bellafiore, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Emergency Medicine | Jeff Conley, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Emergency Medicine | Stefan Merrill, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Family and Community Medicine | Karen Lutrick, PhD, assistant professor
- Family and Community Medicine | Stephanie MacPherson, PhD, assistant professor
Medicine | John Carmichael, MD, clinical assistant professor, Division of Geriatrics, General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine (GGP)- Medicine | Ann Marie Canelas, MD, clinical assistant professor, GGP
- Medicine | Julia Jernberg, MD, clinical assistant professor, GGP
- Medicine | Babu Mohan, MBBS, clinical assistant professor, Division of Inpatient Medicine
- Medicine | Soheila Nuri, MD, clinical assistant professor, Division of Inpatient Medicine
- Medicine | Chad Whelan, MD, clinical professor, Division of Inpatient Medicine
- Medicine | Oleh Haluszka, MD, clinical professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
- Medicine | Ritika Ohri, MD, clinical assistant professor, Division of Nephrology
- Medicine | Sara Centouri, PhD, research assistant professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology
- Medicine | Kosuke Kato, PhD, research assistant professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
- Obstetrics and Gynecology | Cynthia Booth, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Orthopaedic Surgery | Michael Feldman, MD, associate professor
- Pathology | Li-Wen Lai, PhD, professor
- Pediatrics | Pablo Angulo, DO, clinical assistant professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology
- Pediatrics | Mohamed Ahmed, MD, PhD, associate professor, Division of Neonatology
- Pediatrics | Nahla Zagloul, MD, assistant professor, Division of Neonatology
- Pediatrics | Sukeshi Patel, MBBS, clinical assistant professor, Division of General Pediatrics
- Psychiatry | Anna Alkozei, PhD, research assistant professor
- Psychiatry | Christina Arredondo, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Psychiatry | Sutapa Dube, MD, clinical assistant professor
- Surgery | Richard Chua, MD, professor, Division of Neurosurgery
Positive Numbers
Dr. Whelan, an internist who serves as CEO of Banner – University Medicine, also presented an update on the Banner Health academic division and primary clinical partner for the college. It was loaded with good news, both regarding the recent opening of Banner – UMC Tucson's new hospital tower as well as promising financial and patient numbers. For this, he thanked all faculty present.
“Scores are significantly improved over where they were a year ago, from just about every measure. There’s been a lot of great progress,” Dr. Whelan said about patient experience and quality of care. “We're also growing... Over the past year, (that includes) an investment in about 40 net new providers. We’re growing in clinic visits, about 15 percent year over year. That’s dramatic growth.”
He added, “Our discharges are up year over year and, actually, beating our budget... Our case mix index is up above budget and run rate. And our surgeries, while they’re not hitting our budget, are up significantly year over year.”
“So, when you go back and you talk to your faculty and your colleagues and providers around you, please do go back and celebrate that we are growing. And we’re growing in a way that we really need to do. Our elective volumes are up, our payor mix is improved and the financials are showing that... And, it looks like we’re going to have three months in a row now where our hospitals have been profitable. It’s a long time since that’s happened here. That’s really remarkable. This is really, really exciting news.”
Other DOM faculty attending included Elizabeth Connick, MD; Kent Kwoh, MD; Indu Partha, MD; Robert Segal, MD; Linda Snyder, MD, and Chair Monica Kraft, MD, who introduced new faculty.
See the Video
You can watch archived video from the meeting at this link (skip forward to minute 24:30 for the start of the meeting).
TIME STAMP:
To help you track your way through the recording we offer the following:
24:30 | Welcome & Announcements, Irving Kron, MD, Interim Dean, COM-T
26:10 | Banner – University Update, Chad Whelan, MD, CEO, Banner – University Medicine
34:30 | Nominating Committee, Ann Waterbrook, MD
37:00 | New Faculty Members (introduced by department heads; Dr. Kraft's mentions of new DOM faculty starts at 39:20)
45:00 | Faculty Mentoring Awards, Dr. Kron and Alice Min, MD, Assistant Dean, Faculty Affairs
51:55 | Faculty Questions
Among save-the-date items that Dr. Kron mentioned were:
- June 19 | Committee Appreciation Dinner at Hacienda del Sol
- July 26 | White Coat Ceremony for Class of 2023 at Centennial Hall
- Aug. 7 | COM-T General Faculty Meeting and Celebration of Faculty Promotions at HSIB
For an archive of all COM-T General Faculty Meetings and related documents – as well as dates for future ones, click here.
ALSO SEE:
“College of Medicine – Tucson Recognizes Best Faculty Mentors” | Posted May 13, 2019
“Sleep Medicine’s Parthasarathy to Receive COM Faculty Mentoring Award” | Posted May 20, 2016