Dean's Update
March 10, 2023 - Aron Sousa, MD
Friends,
The college is headed into the final work before our accreditation site visit March 20-22 in Grand Rapids. Our team has sent in our updates, we are making videos of our spaces, including the new spaces in East Lansing, and the Academic Affairs team is meeting with people in preparation for each session. Accreditation is a team sport and more than 150 people have participated in the effort. Our folks have done astonishing work in the last year. There are always citations, and we will work with the LCME to improve on our challenges.
I’ve run our last three site visits and have been on LCME site visit teams. Each LCME site survey team and each visit is different, and going into the visit, we should be proud of what we do. I’d like us to remember that the visit is not only about their concerns; these visits are also a chance for colleagues at great institutions to see the excellent work you do. As an example, the college won the AAMC Spencer Foreman Award since our last site visit, and at many levels our community activity and integration has only increased since then. Our rural programs have become stronger, our Grand Rapids effort has expanded significantly as has Flint and the new Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health. And, of course, we have a new partnership with Henry Ford Health and a new campus in Detroit. We have NIH research in six campuses and deliver on the historical promise of a community-based medical school across the academic missions. Feel free to talk about the great work you do.
It is important to know that, after the site team leaves, the LCME committee itself can add, remove, or change the initial report we receive from the site team. Back in 2014, the LCME committee decided to return to the college to check up on our class expansion and new campus development – even as the site team leaves, we will not know the final result.
As you know, public intellectualism is something of a pet project for me, and the college supports the advocacy work of our faculty and students. This week, Brittany Tayler, MD, the 2022-24 Alice Hamilton Scholar of the MSU-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, testified before the Michigan Senate advocating for the position of the Michigan Chapter of the American Association of Pediatrics on gun safety. In her testimony, Dr. Tayler described the struggles of one of her adolescent patients accidentally shot by a sibling with a gun that was not safely stored. There are so many ways for people to reduce gun injury and death, which is the number one cause of death of children in the US. You can work on gun safety, mental health care, suicide prevention, enforcement of existing laws, and improving laws to address gun violence. My thanks to Dr. Tayler for her advocacy.
Next Tuesday is March 14 (3.14), pi day. Be sure to tune in June 28 for tau day, but before that, next Tuesday is also Give Green Day. Our college’s primary fundraising goal is scholarships, so Give Green Day 2023 is dedicated to raising money in support of our students. We’ve decided to focus on the College of Human Medicine Endowed Alumni Scholarship and the Masters of Public Health Student Fund. So, whether you support pi or tau, please contribute to help our students.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD FACP
Dean
