For Your Health
For Your Health

News from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences

Posts Tagged
dean

From the Dean: Getting ready for students’ return amid COVID-19

Categories: From the Dean

The virtual events we held last Friday for the incoming medical student Class of 2024 and their families went very well indeed by all accounts. As is my traditional role, I oversaw the Friday case wrap-up where the entire class “meets” (this year virtually) with the patient whose case history they have been learning from […]

From the Dean: Return-to-work and other COVID-19 updates

Categories: From the Dean

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 grandkids virtually rather than in person. […]

From the Dean: “Best places to practice”

Categories: From the Dean

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 all of the states in the […]

From the Dean: No going back

Categories: From the Dean

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. He recounted a recent event […]

From the Dean: How to honor 2020 grads?

Categories: From the Dean

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 notable physicians and celebrities, joined the […]

From the Dean: Congratulations graduates!

Categories: From the Dean

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. I have recorded on video several […]

From the Dean: On COVID testing

Categories: From the Dean

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 that recurrent episodes of infection can […]

From the Dean: Thank you, North Dakota Congressional delegation!

Categories: From the Dean

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 far has been able to weather […]

From the Dean: Remembering Gary Hart

Categories: From the Dean

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, coming to UND to serve as […]

From the Dean

Categories: From the Dean

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 the North Dakota Department of Health). […]

From the Dean: We’ll get through this together

Categories: From the Dean

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 of our seniors from all programs […]

From the Dean: Physical—not social—distancing

Categories: From the Dean

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 contact with another person in the […]

From the Dean

Categories: From the Dean

This truly has been a momentous and challenging time. Since the spread of the coronavirus will continue and its impact increase over time, it is important for UND and the School of Medicine & Health Sciences to be proactive. So as you may well have heard already, we just made the decision to move all […]

From the Dean

Categories: From the Dean

A big focus this week has been UND’s ongoing preparation for the COVID-19 (coronavirus) issue. It is a fast-moving situation with many implications. But clearly, it is important to prepare earnestly. An example of such anticipatory activity was the decision two days ago by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to cancel this year’s […]

From the Dean

Categories: From the Dean

This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Center for Rural Health (CRH) at the UND SMHS. Since its beginning in 1980 with one employee—Dr. Kevin Fickenscher, its founding director—the CRH has grown to become a major force for good in rural health care delivery in North Dakota in particular, […]