Dean's Update
February 7, 2025 - Aron Sousa, MD
Above: Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely holding Nay’or (her mom is Shanae Ward) and Aron “Googly-eye” Sousa is holding Emani, whose mom is Kinea Wright.
Friends,
Last Friday, I went to the one-year birthday party of Rx Kids, the universal cash allowance program supporting babies in their first year. What a joy! The program has been such a remarkable success improving the lives of babies and their families. There have been improvements in pre- and post-natal medical care, in maternal well-being, and, I love this, low-income evictions dropped to zero. For low-income people not in Flint but in the surrounding areas, evictions before age one persist. What a strain and stress it must be for families and their babies – how wonderful that a program as straightforward as Rx Kids can help solve that problem.
Last Saturday (the first day of Black History Month) I attended the Annual Cultural Banquet hosted by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). The event was attended by students, faculty and staff from across the college. The SNMA is the oldest organization representing the voices of Black and other students of color. SNMA will close out February hosting Reach Out To Youth (ROTY).
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Michigan State University Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. The college had two winners: Hend Azhary, MD, and Jim Anthony, PhD. Dr. Azhary is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Lansing clerkship director who was recognized with an Individual Award for her work providing care for refugee communities most notably for Syrian refugees in the Middle East. Hend was one of our panelists on a recent Town Hall on the care of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
Dr. Anthony was recognized for his lifetime achievement in mentoring numerous students and junior faculty on substance use work. We have numerous faculty who have been his mentees, and I noted that two student research winners yesterday were mentored by Dr. Anthony.
February is Black History Month, and my goal is to include something about Black history in each weekly update this month. The college chose Daniel Hale Williams, MD, as the namesake for one of the student learning societies. Dr. Williams earned his MD from the Chicago Medical College, now the Chicago Medical School in 1883. He went on to have a successful practice as a surgeon and heart specialist. Although Dr. Williams had Black and White patients, Chicago hospitals generally did not admit Black patients and there were not places for Black students to train in nursing. So, Dr. Williams founded Provident Hospital on Chicago’s south side with the support of Black and White philanthropy with the goal of creating an integrated hospital that was a place for Black students to train as nurses. Check out the fascinating wiki page on Provident Hospital – it contains multitudes.
It was at Provident hospital in 1893 that Dr. Williams performed the first successful open heart surgery in the world. The patient had been stabbed and the knife cut the pericardium near the right coronary artery. With the heart beating, Dr. Williams approximated the wound in the heart with forceps and sutured the gash. In an era before modern antibiotics, the patient recovered, walked out of the hospital, and lived another 20 years.
The world continues to spin, and we continue the work of our mission serving the diverse population of 10 million Michiganders, including all in our work, and treating them fairly and equitably guided by the golden rule.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD, FACP
Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine