Vineet Arora, M.D., assistant dean for scholarship and discovery at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, will be the inaugural Robert S. Wigton Visiting Professor of Medicine.
About Dr. Arora
Vineet Arora, M.D., is a board-certified internist, an academic hospitalist, assistant dean of scholarship and discovery, and director of GME Clinical Learning Environment and Innovation at the University of Chicago.
In the latter role, she bridges educational and hospital leadership to integrate residents and fellows into the quality, safety and value missions of the institution. With funding from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institutes of Health and FDA, she develops and implements innovations that combine systems change, novel technologies and adult learning theory to improve value of care and patient experience in teaching hospitals.
Dr. Arora has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, many with trainees. As director of Educational Initiatives at Costs of Care, she co-chaired the Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge and coauthored
Understanding Value-Based Healthcare. She currently serves on the board of directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Arora, who also serves as director of graduate medical education-clinical learning environment innovation, will speak at noon Feb. 19 at the DRC auditorium.
Her appearance culminates a new visiting professorship, the first for general internal medicine, established by Dr. Wigton, a longtime faculty member and campus leader at UNMC.
Dr. Wigton conceived of the idea six years ago, when he appeared as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“It was of a type I hadn’t seen before, and I really enjoyed the visit,” he said. As a visiting professor, Dr. Wigton stayed at the university for three days, not only meeting with students and residents, but mentoring younger faculty members, as well.
Dr. Arora, whom Dr. Wigton calls “a rising star in general medicine research,” will stay for two days because of scheduling conflicts, but in the future, the visiting professorship will last three days.
Dr. Wigton said the visiting professorship was aimed to interest young faculty, especially faculty who would like to do general internal medicine research.
“We have an excellent faculty that is, by and large, education and patient-care oriented,” Dr. Wigton said. “I wanted to get people who could expose them to what’s happening in general medicine research.”
The length of the visit allows time for one-on-one interactions with the visiting professor and young faculty who may be interested in research.
“What this is really all about is mentoring,” Dr. Wigton said.
Dr. Wigton worked with section head Tom Tape, M.D., and the University of Nebraska Foundation to create the visiting professorship.
“We are fortunate that Dr. Wigton has created this enduring visiting professorship,” Dr. Tape said. “It will inspire current and future generations of general internal medicine faculty to develop the scholarly aspects of their academic careers.”
Dr. Wigton said general medicine research takes several forms.
“They do research on how health care is delivered,” he said. “They examine their own and others’ practices and see how their care can be more efficient and effective.
“Also, they are involved in research into medical education, looking for new innovations and ways it can be improved.”
That’s Dr. Arora’s area, Dr. Wigton said, which makes her a perfect visiting professor to begin the series.
“She is improving medical education, but she’s also involved in improving patient care through safety and cost-effective care. These are distinctive general medicine domains for research.”
Marvelous contribution, Bob. Vinny Arora is indeed a star, positive and innovative, and well suited to be your initial visitor.
John Benson