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From the Dean

Although the last official day of this year’s session of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly is fewer than two weeks away, it is likely that the session actually will end sometime next week in order to save some days for another subsequent meeting to address state-wide redistricting. As you may know, the biennial session of […]

The New England Journal of Medicine arguably is the most prestigious medical journal in the world. Many seminal medical discoveries are first reported in the Journal. One of the features of the publication that I and others especially enjoy is the weekly Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, wherein a medical expert discusses a […]

This past Monday we held our annual Sophomore Awards celebration for medical students. This year’s event was virtual due to the pandemic, but the ceremony also was special because, as I mentioned to the Year 2 students in my opening comments, all of the students deserve awards for their perseverance and tenacity in the face […]

The North Dakota Legislative Assembly (aka Legislature) probably has about a month more to run for this biennium. Various bills that are relevant to the School are making their way through the process, and none is more important than SB 2003 (the funding bill for the School and the higher education system as a whole). […]

Today is Match Day for our senior medical students! At 11 a.m. today (12 p.m. Eastern), medical students from around the country (including those at the UND SMHS) learn where they will be spending the next three to five (or more) years as part of their post-MD residency. Hosted by the National Resident Matching Program […]

Today marks one year since the pandemic really started in earnest for Susan and me. On that Friday we retreated to our home and realized that our life – and that of our family, friends, neighbors, and literally billions of others – was about to change in profound ways. You know what I mean – […]

We now have reached the “cross-over” phase of the North Dakota legislative session where bills that originated in one chamber are passed over to the other chamber for consideration. In the case of the funding bill for the UND SMHS that is contained in the higher education budget (SB 2003), the bill (which passed without […]

These past two weeks have reminded me just how outstanding the faculty and staff that we’ve put in place at your UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences truly are. I sometimes joke that I can’t keep up with all the awards and other honors our team members regularly receive for their consistently good work. […]

Here is some promising news regarding the School’s budget submission to the North Dakota Legislative Assembly (Legislature) that currently is being considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Committee just released a status report of its current thinking about the North Dakota University System (NDUS) budget request, of which the UND SMHS is one important […]

I ended my column last week with congratulations to Dr. Don Warne, associate dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Director of UND’s Indians into Medicine (INMED) and Public Health programs, for his selection as a member of the inaugural Explorers 50 class of the Explorers Club, an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the […]

This past Monday we had our first virtual Faculty Assembly during which I traditionally deliver the “State of the School” address, and Faculty Council Chair David Relling presents the various committee reports to the UND SMHS faculty and others in attendance. As it turns out, one of the benefits of the virtual environment forced upon […]

The School’s presentation to the North Dakota Legislature’s Senate Appropriations Committee this past Monday went well. Dave Molmen, CEO of Altru Health System and the chair of the UND SMHS Advisory Council and I presented virtually, utilizing the slides available here. We fielded a few insightful questions from committee members, but none that were problematic. […]

This past year has been a trying one on many levels. The impact of the pandemic has been enormous of course. The suffering of many has been substantial, and the losses heart-wrenching. So, too, is the recent passing of Lonnie Laffen, former North Dakota senator and a principal at JLG Architects, the firm that coordinated […]

As the semester winds down, SARS-CoV-2 cases trend downward as well in North Dakota and at UND. As has been widely reported, we’ve seen a rather dramatic recent decline in cases, test positivity rate, and hospitalizations. All of this mainly can be attributed to better attention to good public health practices by North Dakotans – […]

The School held its first-ever virtual Holiday Gathering last night. Ordinarily, we coordinate December celebrations on each of our four campuses as well as a luncheon get-together that we hold on the second floor of the Grand Forks building. But because of the pandemic, we consolidated all five parties into one – made possible by […]