Internal Medicine Message From the Chair

This is an exciting time of year! We have just finished the 2018-19 academic year with some wonderful celebrations (residency and fellowship banquets and annual research awards) and we welcome the new academic year and our new residents, fellows, faculty, and staff. The June resident banquet focused on our graduating residents and several awards were announced. Please take a look at the story to learn more. Congratulations to Dr. Tate Johnson who earned UNMC House officer of the Year award and to Dr. Marwa Hegagi who received the Sir William Osler faculty teaching award, selected by the residents.
 
The residency banquet also marked a changing of the guard for our program as Dr. James O’Dell is transitioning the residency program director role to Dr. Tammy Wichman. For 35 years, Dr. O’Dell has been the anchor of our residency program, a tireless advocate for our residents and an extraordinary mentor. We will celebrate Jim’s work as program director in a special event on the evening of October 11th. Stay tuned for details.  Dr. O’Dell continues as the Rheumatology Division Chief and Vice Chair for Education.
 
I am pleased that Dr. Wichman has accepted the position of residency program director. For those who might not know her, Dr. Wichman is Associate Professor in the Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep/Allergy division and had previous experience as IM residency director at CUMC. She was an associate program director for UNMC this past year with a focus on mentoring. Tammy is absolutely passionate about education and the ideal person for this job. She has added Dr. Jasmine Marcelin to the associate program director group that also includes Drs. Chad Vokoun, Trek Langenhan, Larry Mitchell, and Rae Witt.
 
We have a tremendous group of new residents and fellows joining us as we start this academic year so you will see many new faces around campus. We welcome them and are honored that they have chosen to be a part of our department. It is our goal to provide them the best environment possible for their training. As I reminded the new residents during their department orientation, we know they will be a vital part of all our missions- clinical care, education, research and service- and to speak up if they see anything that does not seem right.
 
We will have our ten-year site visit from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for our residency program and all of our fellowship programs the first week of August. All the residency and fellowship program directors and all the associated administrative staff and several other faculty are busy preparing the necessary paperwork. A special thank you to them for helping us prepare in a fashion that will let the ACGME see the many excellent components of our training programs. Erin Maxwell Snow and Dr. Wichman are doing a wonderful job of leading this effort.
 
I hope you will spend a couple of minutes to learn more about the many activities and recognition of our faculty and trainees. I extend a special congratulations to our faculty who were promoted this past year. They have gone above and beyond in many activities, were recognized by peers outside of Nebraska for their scholarly activities, and evaluated and approved by the COM promotion and tenure committee, the Dean, and the Chancellor.
 
Summer has definitely arrived (the heat, Memorial park concert and fireworks in my neighborhood last week remind me of the season) and I hope you all find a little time to enjoy what brings you the greatest joy in this season!