AY2023 Initiatives

Associate Deans’ Offices

 Alumni Medical Library – Kate Flewelling

  • In Fall 2022, we will roll-out the library’s first-ever strategic plan. The plan aligns library activities with the five strategic priorities of the BU Strategic Plan, while focusing on the specific needs of the students, faculty and staff on the Medical Campus.
  • Our new reservation system for group and individual study rooms remains popular. New for FY23, large monitors in group study rooms.
  • In FY22, the library purchased or subscribed to new resources to support the new PISCEs curriculum, including Osmosis, 4D Interactive Anatomy and VisualDx. In FY23, we will analyze our current collection to align with BUMC’s DEI, education and research priorities most efficiently, while keeping within current budgetary parameters.
  • In September 2022, Director Kate Flewelling is traveling to Lesotho to provide health information training on behalf of the Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance (LeBoHA) and to determine ways that the library can support this and other BUSM global partnerships.

BUMC IT – Ern Perez

  • Adoption of Gender Affirming Identity Attributes – With the new Identity Management service, BU has replaced Nickname with Display Name and deployed the ability to collect Gender Identity and Pronouns. Moving BU’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion work forward in gender-affirming identity, BUMC IT will be replacing Nickname with Display Name and leveraging the capability to manage Gender Identity and Pronouns/addressing sex vs gender identity in our school-wide applications.
  • Hear My Name – BUMC IT plans to deploy a new application that will allow students, staff, and faculty to record their names and allow others to listen to the correct pronunciation of their names. We plan on adding this capability to as many BUMC IT apps as possible.
  • Clinical skills assessments app – We aim to greatly modernize the web application used for end-of-year and middle-of-year clinical skills assessments.
  • Upgrade to BU Profiles – The upgrade will include group profiles, new publication metrics, performance improvements, add person lists, and will break out volunteer faculty.
  • Collaboration of EdMedia Instructional Tech & EdTech groups: More frequent community outreach to market/demonstrate capabilities of 1) L4 TBL space/pedagogical opportunities 2) classroom technology in all classroom/event spaces, 3) Godley Digital Media Studio, 4) All EdTech software & tools available to faculty, staff, and students.

Diversity & Inclusion – Angelique Harris

  • Launch the Rebecca Lee Crumpler Seminar Series, which will take place annually in April and will focus on research and scholarship that promote inclusion in academic and biomedical sciences.
  • Restructure the Diversity and Inclusion Office: Hire an Associate Director for Diversity and Inclusion as well as an Office Manager to help oversee programming and activities and office management and administration.
  • Launch the LGBTQ+ Seminar Series, which will focus on campus and local research on health and wellness within LGBTQ+ communities.
  • Host a Provost Workshop on Diversity to focus on issues of diversity and accessibility on campus.
  • Relaunch the BUSM Reads reading group for BUSM faculty and staff. This year we will be reading Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. The book will be broken up into three parts and we will meet virtually from noon-1 p.m. on Sept. 21, Oct. 27 and Dec. 8 to discuss each section.
  • Launch the Emerging Scientific Scholars Program (ESSP) through GMS. The purpose of this program is to help underrepresented students in STEM get more acclimated to the city and prepare for graduate study.
  • Increase student programming. A first-year student “Inclusion Mixer” will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Oct. 5 in Hiebert Lounge. This will be for all first-year students to introduce them to inclusion efforts and initiatives at BUSM.
  • Restructure the newsletter into a zine, a virtual or online publication. This zine will include interviews with students, staff and faculty who are working to make our community more inclusive; highlight DEIA focused scholarship; and advertise for upcoming events and programming.

 Faculty Affairs – Hee-Young Park

  • How to Get Promoted Workshops: Faculty Affairs Office and Faculty Development & Diversity Office will jointly host virtual workshops to review faculty promotion guidelines and criteria, followed by individual CV reviews. It will be held in September, November 2022 and Spring 2023.
  • Faculty appointments for BMC and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) Trainees: All Boston Medical Center and SEMC residents and fellows will be offered BUSM faculty appointments at the rank of Clinical Instructor. It will be the first year offering the faculty appointment to SEMC trainees.
  • Propelling Rise of Faculty (PROF) Mentoring program for junior faculty: In order to support BUSM junior faculty toward their academic promotions, BUSM Faculty Affairs and Research Offices are collaborating with the BUMG Professional Development Committee to rollout a program where interested junior faculty would be paired with senior faculty based their needs with a goal toward academic promotion.
  • Appointment And Promotion Tracking (AdAPT) implementation: BUSM Faculty Appointments and Promotions, as well as faculty search/recruitments will transition into a web-based process using AdAPT. AdAPT will allow each department and/or program to submit dossiers for appointment or promotion, track the status of the dossier, track job searches and Affirmative Action documents.
  • Training session for the department administration: Faculty Affairs will be offering training sessions for departmental administrators to assist with their responsibilities of managing faculty. Training sessions will include practical guides on how to prepare required documents for the faculty appointments and promotions, meeting with BU ISSO representatives to learn about visa related tasks and networking among administrators to share their best practices for faculty managements.

 Development – Suzanne Maselli

  • As we prepare for a university-wide fundraising campaign, the BUSM Development Office will complete a strategic plan focusing on the key priorities of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, including research, scholarship, faculty support and facilities.
  • Development, together with Alumni Relations and Communications, will be launching a yearlong series of awareness-building events to celebrate BUSM’s 175th Anniversary, culminating in a “Black Ties for White Coats” dinner. A fundraising campaign will complement the celebrations.
  • Foundation Relations will increasingly focus on seven-figure opportunities to support faculty research and educational programs across BUSM. Foundation leaders will be invited to present to groups of faculty members several times in FY23. The addition of a new position will build capacity of frontline fundraisers to develop new and enhanced relationships with well-aligned funders.
  • We will highlight and raise support for all BUSM is doing to advance racial equity in medicine, whether scholarship support, curriculum initiatives, pipeline programs, or research.

 Graduate Medical Sciences – C. James McKnight

  • Community Catalyst Center – The Community Catalyst Center (C3), spearheaded by Assistant Dean Theresa Davies, helps students acclimate to Boston and the Medical Campus and adjust to the advancing academics of graduate school while gaining a sense of belonging early in the programs at GMS. This center welcomes all GMS students, including international, first-generation college graduates, students of color, LGBTQIA+, veterans and military-affiliated students. C3 develops community among peers across GMS programs by providing resources, events, and workshops that support and help students thrive.
  • Emerging Scholars Awards – With the leadership of Matthew Jones, Program Director for Molecular and Translational Medicine, the Emerging Scholars Awards have been initiated to help diversify GMS PhD programs. These monetary awards, funded by donations from PhD programs and matched by GMS funds, are given with the express goal of mitigating moving and housing concerns for prospective students particularly those with socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • New Awards for GMS Master’s and PhD Students – Four new awards will be given annually GMS students. Two Outstanding Research Achievement awards will be given to honor one PhD and one master’s student for their scientific impact, breakthrough, intellectual contribution/creativity/initiative and/or overcoming major research/experimental obstacles. Two Community Service awards will be given to honor one PhD and one master’s student with service defined in the broadest sense, including but not limited to, initiative and leadership in tutoring/teaching, service to the student body, community service, outreach, and volunteering.

Medical Education – Priya Garg

  • In August 2022, the class of 2026 began BUSM’s redesigned preclerkship curriculum. Students began the year with a medical school immersion focused on learning theory and teams training.  The following week, they began a new health equity course called LEADS- Learn, Experience, Advocate, Discover and Serve.  The course addresses new competencies in health equity and as students progress, they will engage in advocacy, scholarship and research.  Over the last five years, the foundational science and clinical faculty have also worked together to create a new integrated systems based preclerkship course called PISCEs, Principles Integrating Science, Clinical Medicine and Equity. Students are finishing their second week in the course. Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Instructional Design Molly Cohen Osher, MD, MMEd, has been working closely with the faculty and leading the curricular redesign process.
  • The curriculum was launched with the addition of a new collaborative learning classroom space on L-4. This space allows students to sit in teams and work together regularly during class. Faculty have designed new active learning formats and can easily move around the room engaging with students during their teaching sessions. The space also includes learning technology that allows students to view the instructor from multiple screens around the room, a camera that follows the instructor as they speak and enhanced sound proofing so multiple groups can speak without difficulty hearing one another.
  • We are continuing our anti-racism and inclusive pedagogy work. The diversity and inclusion task force of the preclerkship curriculum committee created a website for faculty with resources for teaching as well as links to faculty consultants with expertise in areas related to inclusive curriculum design to assist faculty with their curricular work.
  • A new transitional clerkship was launched for the third-year class in May 2022. For the three weeks prior to entering the clerkship phase, students participated in a new course focused on understanding health systems, learning content used frequently in the clinical setting such as interpreting EKG’s, radiology, simulating rounding and spent two days on the medicine wards at BMC joining teams, observing the environment and workflow and reflecting on learning in a hospital setting before starting their first rotation.

     Student Affairs – Angela Jackson

    • The Advising Program reaches a significant milestone this year – the Class of 2023 is the first class that has had their AME advisor for all four years, and we will assess the evolution and effectiveness of the program and explore next steps in the program’s development. We will continue faculty development efforts, adjusting advising strategies to the evolution of the curriculum. We are continuing Advising SACs (Student Advisory Committee).
    • In the coming year we will increase our emphasis on student wellness and access to medical and behavioral healthcare and wellness programing, with regular student input via the newly formed Wellness SACs. We have redesigned the coordinator roles to increase office efficiency and broadening student access.
    • The residency application process continues to command significant time and energy for the students. We are expanding the workshops offered to students, addressing changes to the ERAS application requirements (program signaling, supplemental application essays, etc.)
    • Student Affairs is launching a new career development seminar series for students, addressing practical aspects of career selection, practice settings, financial models and more. The series will include panel discussions with invited guests, including recent alums.
    • The associate dean is meeting with every fourth-year student, addressing the resident application process, and continuing the regular Walk and Talks with students (hour-long walks in the surrounding neighborhood), in addition to regular lunches with students. 

     Research – Andrew Taylor

    • Data Science Core —Initiated January 2022 the Data Science Core provides long-term collaborative support to the BUSM research community by providing bioinformatics and statistical analyses including Genomics data analyses, Experimental design, Result interpretation, Grant writing, and Education. There are two faculty members providing the core services. Dr. Ignaty Leshchiner whose research is focused on method development and computational analysis of cancer genomic data with an emphasis on tumor heterogeneity, progression, and treatment evasion. Dr. Chao Zhang’s research is on discovering the crosstalk among microbiome, immune environment and tumor progression and also is on models of the molecular mechanisms of aging and neurodegenerative disease. In addition to providing services through the core they are working with the GMS to develop a graduate level course on bioinformatics.
    • iLabs — Working with Information Services & Technology (IS&T) we implementation of a new online Core Facilities Management System. The new system iLabs, provided by Agilent, replaced our outdated and falling Core Equipment Scheduler. The new system provides enhanced online functionality and flexibility for our cores to streamline scheduling, billing, and reporting.
    • Integrated Biomedical Imaging Suite (IBIS) — The build out of the IBIS core was completed to provide a single location on Robinson 8 for a wide range of digital imaging microscopy applications to support research development and discovery on the Medical Campus. The IBIS is a suite of microscope rooms to house four different types of confocal microscopes, a transmission electron microscope, and a computer room for image analysis. The suite is tailored for optimal and safe use of the imaging instruments.
      • The confocals include a Zeiss LSM 880 Microscope with Airyscan for fast and high-resolution imaging on live and fixed cells, a Zeiss LSM 700 Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope for imaging fixed and stained cells and tissue, and a Zeiss LSM 710 NLO Microscope for imaging sections of fluorescent tissue using multiphoton imaging methods and includes 3D reconstruction of biological tissue/cells.
      • A new Jeol JEM-1400 FLASH 120 kV-Transmission Electron Microscope was added to the IBIS purchased through a $463,258 NIH-Shared Instrument Grant awarded to Dr. Haiyan Gong, Professor, Ophthalmology. We added a new Vectra Polaris Quantitative Pathology Imaging System that integrates both multispectral imaging and automated slide scanning. It was purchased through a $402,440 NIH-Shared Instrument Grant awarded to Dr. Nicholas Crossland, Assistant Professor, Pathology.
    • Assistant Dean for Medical Student Research — Matthew Layne, PhD, Associate Professor Biochemistry, was appointed an Assistant Dean for Research. Dr. Layne work will be dedicated to facilitating, monitoring, and evaluating research experiences for medical students. The goal is to expand and enhance student research opportunities at BUSM. This is in collaboration with the Medical Education, Enrichment and Student Affairs offices. In this role, Dr. Layne will maintain and develop new resources, programs and curriculum for medical student research.

    Basic Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Centers and Institutes

    Basic Sciences

    Anatomy & Neurobiology – Jennifer Luebke

    The goals set by the department of Anatomy & Neurobiology (A&N) this year will contribute to each of the major missions of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, including new initiatives in teaching, research and graduate training.

    • The faculty of the department will play a major role in the implementation of the revised medical school curriculum in the coming year, with Dr. Jon Wisco, together with Dr. Caitlin Neri of Pediatrics, serving as co-Directors of the Principles Integrating Science, Clinical Medicine and Equity (PISCEs) curriculum, and several A&N faculty playing other key leadership roles as Module Directors.
    • On the research front, the department will actively recruit talented new neuroscientist faculty to contribute to the strong and collaborative neuroscience research endeavors already ongoing in the department.
    • Finally, the department will bring new educational and training initiatives to our vibrant Vesalius Masters and PhD programs in part through enhanced recruitment efforts, new graduate courses and participation in the AAU PhD Education Initiative in partnership with the Office of Graduate Affairs.

     Microbiology – Ronald Corley

    • Faculty recruitment (research as well as teaching faculty) to expand the department footprint at the intersection of virology and immunology
    • Develop and apply for a T32 Training Program in Virus – Host Interactions (including immune responses, viral pathogenesis, and regulation of viral gene expression and function)

     Physiology & Biophysics – William Lehman

    • We have expanded the department’s role in teaching Human Physiology to medical, dental and graduate students by hiring two new talented Educators.
    • We have played an important part in designing and implementing the revised Medical curriculum.
    • We are in the process of recruiting new junior faculty members in areas of current departmental strength in structural and chemical biology with a focus on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying health and disease.
    • We plan to expand on our current successes in obtaining research funding and our track record of publishing in high profile journals.

     Clinical Sciences

    Anesthesiology – Rafael Ortega

    • Continue refining our residency program to make it among the most competitive in the country.
    • To continue our tradition of excellence in the creation of multimedia medical education programs for publication in leading journals and textbooks.
    • To transform the Department of Anesthesiology into the most heterogeneous and diverse educational environments on the medical campus.

     Dermatology – Rhoda Alani

    • Continue with onboarding of new BU Center for Aging and Skin Health research faculty and launch of Aging Center BU-wide seminar series.
    • Increase departmental federal research funding through individual and collaborative grants, with a special focus on our new Center for Aging and Skin Health and novel Naked Mole Rat facility.
    • Recruit additional clinical and research faculty to expand areas of health disparities research, basic research on inflammatory diseases of the skin, research in skin cancers and wound healing, and clinical research and care programs in Hidradenitis Suppurativa.
    • Continue developing and promoting faculty to the next academic rank.
    • Continue with recognition for excellence in teaching to medical students in the pre-clinical and clinical programs.

    Emergency Medicine – Christian Arbelaez

    The Department of Emergency Medicine has embarked on a journey to redesign and reimagine emergency care through innovative healthcare delivery models to better meet our patient’s needs. In our emergency department and in our classrooms, we aim to teach and train the future generations and leaders of the frontlines. Students will be exposed to the depth and breadth of emergency medicine and see patients from all walks of life. From third-year medical student rotations to individualized mentorship, students will learn the fundamentals of emergency medicine. Our four-year residency program is nationally renowned, and our fellowships provide specialized training in EMS, ultrasound, addiction medicine, health equity, and global health. Our faculty are diverse and reflective of the community we serve with a major focus on community engagement.

    Family Medicine – Stephen Wilson

    The Department of Family Medicine is celebrating our 25th anniversary at Boston University. We are taking this opportunity to review, reinforce and reenergize who we are and why we exist.

    Our Vision:  To make health equity the reality.

    We Value:

    • Providing biopsychosocial care for all patients across the lifespan in any setting
    • Building up health of individuals, families, and communities, especially those negatively affected by structural inequities, by delivering complex, comprehensive, coordinated, continuous patient care
    • Innovating clinical care, research, and education to improve health outcomes in marginalized communities
    • Improving access to high-quality care and broadening our impact on individuals and communities through collaboration, partnership, and advocacy
    • Growing a diverse, engaged, and vital work force prepared to provide exceptional care.

    Our Strategic Goals are grounded in our belief that all people, no matter race, ethnicity, heritage or neighborhood, should have a fair opportunity to achieve their full health potential, so we strive to remedy differences in health that are systemic, unjust, and avoidable.

    Our overarching strategic goal is to define, develop, and demonstrate value-based care in Family Medicine to improve individual and population-level health equity.

    • Our Vice Chair for Health Equity has been elected to serve as President of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (2022-2025).
    • Our international work in Lesotho continues to thrive and advance. The residency program is producing doctors for the country, ground will be broken on new building this year, and plans are under way for a medical school. Work in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos are rebounding from COVID limitations.
    • We continue to have a strong presence in medical student education through our highly rated Family Medicine Clerkship.
    • In addition to having one for the eight combined family medicine-psychiatry residencies in the country, our department’s family medicine residency program is exploring other innovative ways to delivery family medicine training.
    • We are expanding our use of point-of-care ultrasound, growing our addiction training and services, enhancing our sports medicine presence community health centers, increasing our care of hospitalized patients, adding more operative family medicine-obstetric providers to support of collaborative partnership with the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and building our research infrastructure and community engagement.

    Our dedicated, committed faculty make all we do possible. We continue to work hard to diversify our faculty and trainees to better reflect, reach and aid the communities we serve.

      Medical Sciences & Education – Hee-Young Park

      • The BUSM Medicine & STEM (BUSM-MSP) Program for the Boston Public High School (BPS) students has been launched and held in-person for the summer 2022 under the direction of Dr. Maura Kelley. BUSM-MSP will offer virtual programs for the fall 2022 and spring 2023 for BPS high school students.
      • Educators’ Collaborative Lunch will be returned and offered each month starting September 2022. Workshops presented at the 17th Annual BUMC McCahan Education Day will be featured, as well as other topics on how to do educational research.

       Medicine – David Coleman

      • The Department of Medicine at BUSM and BMC achieved a number of important goals in our clinical, educational, and research domains. The Department’s clinical programs continued to grow in volume and improve in quality, particularly in observed to expected inpatient mortality. Through our partnership with BMC, we established a new CAR-T cell program for patients with cancer and achieved Age Friendly Health System designation by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement through the efforts of faculty in Hematology-Oncology and Geriatrics, respectively. The Sickle Cell program also expanded and an interdisciplinary ambulatory program for patients with “Long” COVID symptoms was established by faculty in the Infectious Disease Section.
      • The research faculty secured over $97M of new external research funding. New interdisciplinary research initiatives were developed in the following areas: Predictors of Efficacy for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Women’s Health, Musculoskeletal Biology, and development of Bioinformatic/Artificial Intelligence Tools for mitigating Health Inequities.
        • The department purchased new state of the art research equipment for our research cores: Octet Biolayer Interferometry for measuring protein-protein interactions, a STED Super-Resolution microscope, and equipment to evaluate spatial transcriptomics in tissue.
        • Biorepositories were developed in several sections of the department (hematology-oncology, nephrology, infectious disease).
        • A comprehensive Medicaid Database will be purchased shortly to facilitate large scale studies of the Medicaid population.
        • In partnership with the CTSI, the department established an Early Research Career Development Program targeted at senior fellows and junior faculty.
        • A mechanism to develop best practices for pre- and post-doctoral training through T32 awards was implemented in AY22 and will be further refined in AY23.
      • The department’s educational programs continued to benefit from the support of the Education Evaluation Core.
        • The programs in student education developed more individualized learning approaches for students on clinical rotations and continued to refine the use of criterion-based assessment of students.
        • Our residency program successfully recruited a very diverse class-over 20% from groups under-represented in medicine.
      • Five new Evans Distinguished Professors of Medicine were named in the Fall of 2021 and three new Endowed Professorships were established by the department in AY22.
      • The department’s several initiatives in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility grew in AY22 and a new Associate Chair for DEIA was recruited to the Faculty Development and Diversity Program.
      • Importantly, the department completed a one-year review of faculty compensation and implemented comprehensive compensation models in AY23 for clinical and non-clinical (research) faculty. The compensation models are intended to increase transparency, equity, market-competitiveness, and to reward high achievement.
      • The department’s faculty, staff and trainees are excited to welcome our new Chair, Dr. Tony Hollenberg, in November 2022!

       Neurosurgery – James Holsapple

      • Develop complex neurosurgery spine program under leadership Jose Fernandez, MD (Dir Spine Surgery).
      • Continue human trial non-invasive intracranial (MIT-BUSM-BMC collaboration; J Holsapple, MD/T Heldt, PhD).
      • Continue CNS drug delivery research (MIT-BUSM-BMC collaboration; U Upadhyay, MD).
      • Expand Summer Program in Neuroscience (SPIN collaboration including Graduate Program Neuroscience, Neurology, Neuro Pathology, Neuro Radiology, Neurosurgery).
      • Expand Neurosurgical Residency Training Program (J Holsapple, MD, Program Director).
      • Continue Master’s Medical Engineering Program (BU-BUSM Neurosurgery collaboration, P Rohatgi, MD).

      Obstetrics & Gynecology – Aviva Lee-Parritz

      Develop and implement initiatives to eliminate racial inequities in health outcomes in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

      Department Level

      • Identify opportunities within our departmental policies and procedures to improve the diversity, equity, and vitality of our faculty and staff.
      • Increase Innovation in Clinical Care that will optimize health and decrease total cost of care
      • Increase grant funding and scholarly work focused on interventions that reduce health care disparities.

      Obstetrics

      • Eliminate racial inequities in maternal morbidities
      • Decrease by 30% the transfusion rate for Black birthing people Baseline 4% 2021
      • Provide provider level patient outcome data for all obstetric care providers.
      • Optimize care for women with hypertensive disorders
      • Remote health monitoring with cell enabled BP cuffs
      • Increase transition to PCP appointment in first 6 months post-delivery by 50%

      Gynecology

      • Eliminate racial inequities in mode of operation (abdominal v laparoscopic) for hysterectomies.
        • Focus on decreasing rates of open hysterectomy in Black women
      • Expansion of scope and funding for Fibroid Center
      • Ensure consistent and comprehensive evidence-based counseling of patients on management options for symptomatic fibroids multidisciplinary care through gynecologic medical and surgical specialists, reproductive endocrinologists, radiologists, and women’s health primary care professionals.
      • Amplify and sustain work of a 10-week pilot program of group care for patients with symptomatic fibroids integrated with qualitative research assessing education and empowerment by the group care.
      • Expand use of a novel new treatment for fibroids using invasive radio frequency ablation of fibroids which is hysterectomy sparing, which is a barrier for many women seeking care.

      Education

      • Continuous improvement in quality of Core Clerkship and Electives in Obstetrics and Gynecology as measured by GQ reports and end of clerkship evaluations.
      • Increase the number of URiM medical students that choose Obstetrics and Gynecology for specialty training.
      • Maintain full accreditation of our residency training program.
      • Increase the number of residents that match into post graduate fellowships

      Equity and Inclusion

      • Create a functional and sustainable Patient Advisory Board.
      • Collaborative Equity/Inclusion Training faculty, staff and trainees together

      Family Planning

      • Understand race-based discrepancies in post-abortion complications.
      • Maintain clinical access through a volatile time locally and nationally.

        Project Respect (Substance Use Disorder treatment in Pregnancy)

        • Decrease barriers to care for pregnant women of color with substance use disorder
        • Standardize processes to provide continuity and trauma-informed care.
        • Continue and optimize our Fellowship in Maternal Health and Addiction (the only one in the country)

         Ophthalmology – Stephen Christiansen

        • Expand cataract care at the LeBoHa district hospital site in Lesotho with the purchase of a phaco/vitrectomy instrument.

        Orthopaedic Surgery – Paul Tornetta III

        • Paul Tornetta III, MD, was elected Second Vice President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery.  He will assume the role of President in 2024.
        • Tiger Li, MD, competed the prestigious AOSSM-ESSKA traveling fellowship.

        Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery – Gregory A. Grillone

        • Recruit a second, fellowship trained Pediatric Otolaryngologist to further expand and better meet our educational, research and clinical missions in this subspecialty and to provide comprehensive management of craniofacial disorders (including Cleft Lip/Palate and Treacher Collins Syndrome) and Congenital Hearing Disorders with state-of-the-art technology like cochlear implantation.
        • Continue aggressive efforts to build our research infrastructure and footprint by identifying and leveraging a variety of funding mechanisms to support our many research efforts in the department.
        • Develop a new, comprehensive student guide for the Third Year Otolaryngology rotation, Sub-I and Advanced Otolaryngology rotations that includes: roles, responsibilities and expectations of the rotation; criteria by which grades will be determined; process that will be used to provide attending and resident feedback to students; as well as other guidance and tips to assure a successful rotation.

        Pathology & Laboratory Medicine – Chris Andry

        Teaching Mission

        • Brian Moore, MD, MEd, Clinical Professor, was appointed Vice Chair for BUSM Education and Director for the GSDM Pathology Course. Daniel Remick, MD, Professor has taken on leadership of Medical Immunology education for BUSM and GMS in the department. Both leaders have and will contribute to the ongoing BUSM syllabus transition, with continued with support from Dr Mostafa Belghasem.
        • The Master’s in Pathology Laboratory Sciences program led by Elizabeth Duffy, MA will continue to expand in size and diversity. We have a successful track record for recruitment of students underrepresented in science and medicine and female candidates. The program will award the Adrianne E Rogers, MD, Emeritus Professor scholarship, named for the co-founder of the master’s program.
        • We will recruit candidates for the new GMS certificate program Path 2 Path, with a goal to recruit scholars from groups underrepresented in science and medicine.
        • We will continue to recruit a diverse class of Pathology Resident Trainees.
        • We will continue to recognize the life and career of Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller and recognize his role on the New England Pathologists Society website.

        Clinical Service

        • Projecting a growth year, we will recruit faculty with sub-specialty expertise in Breast pathology, Cytopathology and Hematopathology.
        • Our goal in AY2022 was to recruit a pathologist of African descent to serve as a faculty member in our department, this was successful and she joined the department this AY2023.
        • We are bidding to expand laboratory services to offsite services including Community Health Centers in the Boston ACO.
        • Next Generation Sequencing has been added to the clinical repertoire in Anatomic Pathology and will go live this year.

        Research

        • Jim Crott, PhD was recruited and joined the department. His field of interest and expertise is cancer biology, microbiome and aging. He will expand collaborations across campus.
        • We will expand the Shipley Prostate Cancer biobank with supporting annotated data base and preparation of Tissue Microarrays.
        • We will continue the recruiting cycle for cancer biologists and neuroscientists.
        • Faculty continued to seek to secure extramural funding, both Federal and Industry.

          Surgery – Jennifer Tseng

          • Partnerships with St. Elizabeth’s
            • BMC Trauma to help SEMC stand up Level 2 trauma center with BMC faculty
            • Expansion of vascular surgery fellowship to St. Elizabeth’s, so 3 sites now:  BMC, Boston VAMC, and St. Elizabeth’s.
            • Appointment of first female Chief of a Level 1 Trauma Center ever in Massachusetts: Dr. Tracey Dechert, Associate Professor, BUSM.

            Centers and Institutes

            Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center – Neil Kowall

            Engaged in 4 major initiatives:

            • Discovery of imaging and fluid biomarkers that can accurately detect chronic traumatic encephalopathy and differentiate it from similar dementias
            • Development and validation of cost-effective and scalable biomarkers for the detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with focus on blood-based biomarkers.
            • Exploring the multiple pathways that exposure to repetitive head impacts from contact sports, military service and other sources can lead to long-term thinking, memory, mood and behavior.
            • Precision Brain Health Initiative to maximize inclusivity through the development of a digital platform to identify and validate digital biomarkers and extend this work internationally through the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative Global Cohort.

            Amyloidosis Center – Vaishali Sanchorawala

            Amyloidosis Center looks forward to continuing its commitment to training, education, research and advocacy to accelerate the development of scientific advances to benefit patients with amyloid diseases. The vision for the Amyloidosis Center is to create a high performing future-oriented center with better and continued international recognition. We want to be the engine behind innovation in amyloidosis research and treatment – collaborative, mission driven, strategic and results-oriented.

            The goals for the upcoming year are focused on 3 main programmatic pillars of Excellence, Innovation and Collaboration.

            • Excellence: Center should focus on outstanding achievement relative to historical benchmarks
              • Research
                • Increase in federal, philanthropic and industry funding
              • Clinical performance
                • Improve patient satisfaction
                • Rapid and timely appointments for evaluation
                • Rapid and timely communication with referring physicians
              • Academic performance
                • Enhance publications records
                • Publish in high impact factor journal
            • Innovation: Center should foster new discoveries
              • Recruit basic science faculty and/or external advisor
              • Increase the number of industry sponsored research activities
              • Collaboration: Center should have effective means of communication and collaboration
                • Collaborate with other centers of excellence
                • Enhance external marketing
                • Annual newsletters to the patients, families and referring physicians

              BU-BMC Cancer Center – Matthew Kulke, Gerald Denis, Julie Palmer

              • We are building large, multidisciplinary teams to address emerging problems across the major cancer types, with the first teams funded by NCI in breast cancer to consider patient metabolism as a modifier of metastatic risk, as well as mechanisms in recurrent triple negative breast cancer. Exciting new technologies, like spatial transcriptomics and single cell proteomics, are being brought to bear.
              • Similar teams focused on prostate cancer have been formed and several external applications are under consideration for funding. Lung and colorectal cancer focused teams are also either funded or in formation.
              • Demonstration of our ability to create these multidisciplinary teams that leverage animal models, novel molecular tools, and diverse expertise to address the needs of our unique patient population, is essential to support our planned application to NCI for comprehensive cancer center support. We have hired a consultant to assist in the extensive data gathering necessary for that application, and have been making excellent progress.

              CTSI – David Center

              • Our Community Engagement Program launched a Research Partnership Scholars grant and Community Engagement Learning Collaborative to enhance opportunities for community/academic partnerships to be built upon trust and reciprocity.  We collaborated with BMC partners to create the Health Equity in COVID Research Community Advisory Board and the Boston HealthNet Research Collaborative, to support community and academic conversations about community competent research strategies, equity in research, and community research interests. Our framework to guide evaluation of our Program was recently published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.
              • In collaboration with BMC and with the BUSPH, our Informatics Program continues to be an active participant in the National COVID-19 Cohort Collaborative (N3C), submitting extensive deidentified clinical data about patients with COVID-19 from i2b2 via TriNetX to the N3C Enclave. We also have been leaders in the N3C Social Determinants of Health Workgroup and were the first site in the US to exchange electronic health data related to social determinants of health (SDoH) screening using standard data terms (LOINC) – an approach that has been adopted by multiple sites since.
              • The BMC CDW research analytics team continues to support the “COVID Virtual Data Repository” which uses standardized scripts and datastores to rapidly provide data extracts for research use which was used by a BUMC-CRC collaboration lead by the lab of Yannis Paschlides to develop highly predictive models of COVID outcomes for hospitalized patients as well as an online prediction tool.
              • In collaboration with the BMC Center for Health Equity and the BU-CTSI has implemented “Data for Equity (D4E),” a next generation population-based data platform based on the OMOP Common Data Model supported by the OHDSI Health Services Research Collaborative. The vision for D4E is to provide a comprehensive data platform to support health services research, implementation science, machine learning and AI, and comparative effectiveness research by organizing rich data related to the social factors that individuals experience and the features of the places that they live.  Data from D4E are being shared within the CURE ID project to study hospital and ICU outcomes for COVID patients on a national scale.

              Center for Regenerative Medicine – Darrell Kotton

              • The Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) had a year of successful faculty growth, 45 new grant or fellowship awards and 40 publications. After a national faculty search, Dr. Angie Serrano, Assistant Professor of Medicine, arrived to open her lab in the CReM on January 1, 2022, focused on regenerative medicine and stem cell biology related to vascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
              • Continued COVID-19 disease modeling using a variety of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human organoid models were a highlight.
              • Application of organoids for single cell RNA sequencing profiles provided new atlases of human development and disease, published in Nature Communications and a collaborative multi-institutional Nature publication of new lung lineage differentiation trajectories.
              • The Center continues to be a popular home for PhD and MD/PhD graduate student dissertations and a leader of Boston University’s Regenerative Medicine Training Program funded by the NIH/NCATS through a successfully renewed TL1 training grant.
              • Our investigators together with collaborators in Boston University’s Bioengineering Department were selected as Allen Distinguished Investigators in recognition of their work in lung regeneration.

              Genome Science Institute – Nelson Lau

              • This year, the BUSM Genome Science Institute completed its move to new office space in the K-building, in K312. The new space provides an inviting meeting and working space for genetics and genomics trainees to meet with the various BUSM faculty affiliated with the GSI and faculty speakers in the GSI seminar series.
              • The GSI office is also now staffed with our newest administrative coordinator, Abigail Gatanti, who has worked closely with the GSI Directors, Drs. Lau, Grishok, and Flynn, to bring new energy and more activities to the GSI in the coming post-pandemic future.
              • New activities include resuming in-person symposium and seminars, and promoting the development of the new BUSM Data Science Core.

               Military Health – Glenn Markenson

              • Submit a grant proposal to NIH and/or DoD from our military servicewomen’s health working group.
              • Collaborate with USARIEM investigators to examine military health issues using their new health database, SPHERE.
              • Begin outreach to regional reserve component installations to promote BUSM graduate medical education programs.
              • Organize military scholarship information sessions for our medical, dental and graduate medical science students.
              • Develop a mentoring program for veteran students and those on military scholarships.

              Pulmonary Center – Joseph Mizgerd

              The goals for the Pulmonary Center for the upcoming year are to make further and greater advances against lung disease.

              • We will grow and strengthen our team, via new recruitments and collaborations, with DEIA principles guiding the team building.
              • We will expand our extramural research funding to empower bold new investigative directions.
              • We will continue our teaching activities through coursework, non-credit curricula, and mentorship to provide future generations of scientists bolstering lung health and fighting pulmonary disease.

              Slone Epidemiology Center – Julie Palmer

              • The Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS) has expanded into new areas of research. Lynn Rosenberg received an R01 to study dementia among Black women (The influence of structural racism on incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in Black women) and published results of a randomized clinical trial of an internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in Black women (JAMA Psychiatry). Dr. Kimberly Bertrand received two new R01s for research on MGUS and multiple myeloma (Socio-environmental context in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance disparities; Determinants of the racial/ethnic disparity in MGUS risk: An epidemiologic study in four cohorts.
              • In a continuation of BWHS research on major cancer sites, Dr. Julie Palmer published on development and validation of a novel risk prediction model for breast cancer in Black women (Journal of Clinical Oncology) and on eligibility of U.S. Black women for lung cancer screening under the new USPSTF screening guidelines (JAMA Oncology).