I suspect that you, like me, have periods of concern and worry regarding the current pandemic and especially how it might impact the future. I was, quite frankly, struggling a bit emotionally earlier in the week, especially after yet again having to interact over the weekend with our five grandkidsRead More

As I mentioned in this column last week, I “attended” the latest triannual meeting of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for two days earlier this week. We reviewed almost three dozen accreditation surveys, status reports and change notifications (for example, regarding class size) from medical schools across theRead More

Last year, I mentioned an annual survey of the attractiveness of various physician practice locations around the U.S. conducted and reported by Medscape, a commercial online portal for physicians and other health professionals. The survey for 2020 was just released (“2020 Best and Worst Places to Practice”). It ranks allRead More

The growth of virtual rather than face-to-face communications and interactions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic continues at a dizzying pace. Recently I was talking with the developer of a software product that is able to analyze millions of patient records and use artificial intelligence to develop improved patient management strategies.Read More

Sunday marks my last day as interim president of UND, as Andy Armacost officially takes over on Monday, June 1, 2020. Susan and I have been busy packing up our belongings in University House prior to our move out next week, and our Fargo home will be chock full ofRead More

This past Wednesday night, I had a chance to watch a virtual national celebration produced by the American Medical Association to honor the roughly 30,000 medical students nationwide who have or will be graduating this spring. Actors who have portrayed doctors on TV and in movies, along with other notableRead More

As I mentioned in last week’s column, this weekend marks graduation for our senior class of medical and health sciences students. All together, more than 320 UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences students will receive their degrees in virtual Commencement ceremonies that get underway at 10 a.m. tomorrow. IRead More

I’m now in the last few weeks of my interim presidency at UND. Andy Armacost takes over officially on June 1, 2020, but as you probably know, we have been working together on the presidential transition since January. In view of the pandemic, having both of us working together duringRead More

As we move into May, the COVID-19 pandemic continues, although many parts of the country now seem to be on the descending limb of at least the initial infection curve. To what extent, and how severe, recurrent waves of outbreak will occur still remains unclear. But it seems likely thatRead More

Thanks in part to geography, aggressive physical distancing and other public health measures embraced by many North Dakotans, an impressive ramp-up of the state’s testing and contact tracing capacity, and adroit leadership from the Governor and his executive branch (including the North Dakota Department of Health), North Dakota so farRead More

To begin, I have some sad news to report. L. Gary Hart, Ph.D., director of the UND Center for Rural Health (CRH) at the School and professor in the Department of Population Health, passed away on Monday, April 13, after a recent illness. He joined the CRH in 2010, comingRead More

The COVID-19 saga continues to play out in North Dakota and around the world. The good news is that the trend thus far in North Dakota has been better than in many other places, although we have had six deaths so far (as of the latest report yesterday from theRead More

It again has been a busy week, and again dominated by COVID-19 issues. But as I outlined in my comments last week, the activities of the School continue, albeit in very modified ways. Thanks to the internet, and the creativity and flexibility of our faculty and staff, the majority ofRead More

We are obviously in very different space than we were one short month ago. On Feb. 27, 2020, Susan and I were on a several-day break out in Big Sky, Mont. Today we are hunkered down in University House, practicing social distancing, and we’ve been without direct close personal contactRead More

Like many of you, I’ve been going nonstop and trying to manage the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and its impact. What follows, then, are the latest updates pertaining to the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences, and a longer version of an op-ed I wrote that was published byRead More