A message from Dr. Jim Calvin
It's a pleasure to introduce the Department of Medicine’s newsletter for the first quarter of 2022. We all experienced a challenging time in 2020 and 2021, and this year was ushered in with its own set of challenges due to the omicron extension of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, the Department is continuing to thrive and has carried on with several initiatives during the course of the past 12 months.
First, I would like to note that we have hired more than 20 new faculty since July 2021. These appointments span the Divisions of Cardiology, Immunology and Allergy, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases, Hematology, Nephrology, Respirology and Rheumatology. Since 2014, we have added over 130 faculty members to the Department including close to 30 researchers and scientists. And we have eight individuals who were promoted this past year to the full Professor level.
I also want to congratulate Dr. Kristen Clemens for the PSO Faculty Leadership Development Award and Dr. Jackie Ernst for her appointment as Chair, Indigenous Student Subcommittee in the Admissions Office; Dr. Amit Garg for his appointment as Associate Dean, Clinical Research; and Dr. Mark Goldszmidt for being appointed as the University Hospital Site Chief. In addition, Dr. Lakshman Gunaratnam has been appointed as the Doctor Robert Zhong Chair in Translational Transplant Research; Dr. Alejandro Lazo-Langner was appointed Chair/Chief of the Division of Hematology; and Dr. Christine MacDonald was appointed Chair/Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine. Dr. MacDonald also was the recipient of the Medical Advisory Committee Award for outstanding contributions to LHSC.
Our research achievements continue, with great success in recent funding competitions. Several researchers in the Department received CIHR Project Grants – congratulations to Drs. Richard Kim, Tianqing Peng and Tom Appleton. The Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario also awarded funding to several individuals in the Department – congratulations to the awardees. I am proud of these research achievements during a very difficult time managing the pandemic activity.
The Centre for Quality Innovation and Safety has continued up until the present time with the LUC3 clinic, a virtual clinic providing remote ambulatory care to patients with COVID-19 infection. This clinic will be ending soon but serves as an innovative prototype for virtual care going forward. We are also completing a pilot study on the 28-day readmission rate reduction using a patient coach. More than 100 patients have enrolled in this study and we expect the results will be available later this year.
All of these achievements are really the result of persistence, dedication and commitment of our faculty, who have been sorely tested through these times.
Dr. Jim Calvin
Chair/Chief, Department of Medicine
