Welcome. Just about a year ago, you received the “2016 Report to Our Community.” Because that was warmly welcomed and often complimented, we undertook another one. Now with a second report in two years, it’s probably safe to refer to these as “annual reports.” I’m happy, therefore, to share our 2017 annual report with you.

To select topics to include, I asked the vice chairs, division chiefs and various program heads to make nominations. This resulted in much more to write about than we had space for, so we culled until we reached a representative swath of the department, its people and the many outstanding programs.

Choosing a theme can take some time, but this year collaboration came quickly to mind. We are blessed with ideal geography, which makes it easy to find someone in another division or department or school on campus to work with. We have terrific colleagues to listen to our ideas who often find synergies between what we need and what they do. Collaboration is integral to our makeup.

Glenn Chertow proposed that we write about several members of his nephrology division who are married to Stanford physicians. This became our centerpiece article because it shows how critical continuous collaboration is to running four households, each headed by two doctors.

Several articles focus on the next generation of physicians. Faculty mentoring is one way our trainees learn the value of collaboration in academic research. Some residents take advantage of the Center for Innovation in Global Health’s program to spend a rotation outside the United States. Ten residents are being trained in both internal medicine and anesthesia. The Capstone Experience is a weeklong program for senior medical students to help them make a smooth transition to residency.

Quite a few articles focus on individual researchers. Purvesh Khatri talks about how he explores potential clinical applications of his Big Data discoveries thanks to helpful colleagues with wet labs. Julie Parsonnet praises her research collaborators, while working with undergraduates in her role as a resident fellow in Robinson House – an entirely different level of collaboration. Donna Zulman describes the array of people and services she counts on to help her very high-risk VA patients. Kavitha Ramchandran talks about two different collaborative themes in palliative care.

Haruko Akatsu’s writing about her U.S. medical education evolved into a well-received book and an invitation to help design an innovative medical school curriculum in Japan.

Jason Gotlib’s study of idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome began in 2002 with a single patient and progressed through dramatic discoveries, to clinical trials, to successful treatment of patients with other diseases. Walter Park’s research involves a 10-site consortium that researchers expect will help them learn much about diseases of the pancreas. Mark Genovese’s research into inflammatory diseases has been improving options for patients since the 1990s. Crystal Mackall aims to make Stanford a leader in all facets of cell therapy. Mark Nicolls took advantage of the SPARK program to advance a discovery from his lab into clinical trials for pulmonary hypertension. Research from PCOR led by Jonathan Chen shows that over-prescribers of opioids are not just bad actors operating out of backroom pill mills.

Stanford Coordinated Care epitomizes team collaboration overseeing the health of university employees with multiple medical issues. A new master’s degree in community health and prevention research has already stimulated collaborations among several schools and programs on campus. With Presence: The Art and Science of Human Connection, clinicians aim to collaborate among the seven schools on campus to ease the fractious relationship between physicians and technology. The new Center for Digital Health provides opportunities to collaborate with entities in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that crave creative medical input into their processes and products. And Stanford unveils its master of science program for physician assistants.

The collaborative spirit is evident across the spectrum of the Department of Medicine – in our research, when treating patients, with our trainees, overseas and at home, here in Palo Alto.

Sincerely,

Robert Harrington, MD
Chair, Department of Medicine

At Home

In Research

Treating Patients

With Trainees

Overseas