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From the Dean

About a quarter of our School’s total budget comes from grants and contracts, and most of the grants come from federal agencies, most commonly the National Institutes of Health. Such grants are essential to support the School’s research enterprise, and most of this research could not be done without the associated grant support. Because almost […]

One of the best-known health care providers in the country, based in the Midwest, just completed a mass mailing to physicians with an appeal to return to the Midwest to practice medicine. Susan and I got such a flyer in the mail earlier this week. It highlights a supply chain problem that we at the […]

This has been a busy week at your UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences, largely related to the arrival last week of the 78 freshman medical students in the Class of 2026. This past Wednesday, Susan and I hosted a reception for the new students, as has been our custom over the years. We […]

As I mentioned in my column last week, I had the pleasure and honor of welcoming the medical student Class of 2026 to the UND SMHS this past Tuesday. I met with the class in person, although I was masked (as I routinely do when indoors around others). While the latest Centers for Disease Control […]

Happy first day of the new academic year! And Happy Fourth of July weekend! Yesterday marked the end of the 2022 academic (and fiscal) year (AY) for UND and the SMHS. The school’s budget for AY23 has been approved by President Armacost and the North Dakota University System (NDUS), and has been successfully uploaded into […]

Earlier this week I received my copy of the summer edition of North Dakota Physician, the quarterly publication of the North Dakota Medical Association (NDMA) for its members. Because it contained several articles that may be of interest to the entire SMHS family, I thought I would summarize some of the pieces, especially for the […]

I begin this week’s column again on a sad note. Last week, Dr. Richard Vari passed away after a valiant but brief battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terrible progressive neurodegenerative disease that also is called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the famous baseball player who also succumbed to it. Rick was one of the […]

As this academic and fiscal year winds down and the new one begins on July 1, we are finalizing our budget for the upcoming second year of the biennium. Per North Dakota University System (NDUS) requirements, we need to electronically submit our final budget package to the NDUS and embed it in their system soon. […]

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of welcoming over 50 undergraduates to the SMHS for a summer research experience at UND. The goal of the program is to attract talented undergraduate students studying science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) at a North Dakota college/university to a career in the biomedical sciences. The program provides […]

With the fast-approaching start of the new academic (and fiscal) year (AY and FY) on July 1, 2022, we are finalizing our budget plans for what will be the second year of the biennial budget. As you undoubtedly know, the North Dakota legislature meets every other year (in the years with odd numbers) and authorizes […]

I have some sad news to share for those of you who have been associated with the SMHS for some time. Earlier this week an esteemed former faculty member, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Dr. Roger Melvold, passed away at age 76. Roger served as professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at the SMHS from […]

Commencement 2022 is here at the UND SMHS! Tomorrow, 69 medical students officially will join the medical profession as they are awarded their MD degrees. Following a celebration brunch where outstanding students and faculty are recognized, we will reassemble in the Chester Fritz Auditorium for the afternoon Commencement. You can watch the ceremony, which starts at […]

Given the current apparent transition of COVID-19 in our region from a pandemic to an endemic situation (meaning that while COVD-19 has not disappeared, it no longer is associated with widespread, rapid, and potentially debilitating community spread), it would appear to be an appropriate time to further modify the School’s pandemic mitigation policy. To this […]

Yesterday marked the 42nd annual Frank Low Research Day at the School, and this year our premier research event was again virtual. Presentations by faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and graduate, medical, and health sciences students were prerecorded and then aired during the meeting, with subsequent live video discussion with members of the audience. Named […]

Susan and I recently “attended” (virtually) the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (called ACC22) that was held in Washington, D.C., from April 2-4. It was a hybrid event, with a moderate number of in-person attendees and a fair number online (like Susan and me). I spent a total of 18 hours participating […]