Department of Medicine 2020 Annual Report
Our Broad Reach
Over the course of an academic year we have many opportunities to learn what our colleagues are accomplishing: rounds at the division or department level, news items on department and division websites, award ceremonies, and our annual state of the department conference, among others. Once a year, we publish our annual report, which contains articles about the clinical, educational, research, and outside activities of individuals and groups throughout the department.
Every annual report has a theme. This year’s report focuses on how we’re extending our reach, whether through recent advances in treating a variety of diseases, or different approaches to the practice of medicine, or the diverse faces of medicine at Stanford. In these pages any one of us might find a nugget of information that could move our own research forward after a conversation with the colleagues an article describes.
Each individual article is like a pebble tossed in the water, its ripples widening over time to an unknowable extent, not unlike a lab discovery that turns into a drug development project and thereafter becomes a therapy that is successful in clinical trials until ultimately it becomes a treatment that heals patients worldwide.
Here are a few examples of how we’re making an impact beyond our department: Our colleagues are transforming care for patients with sarcoidosis by treating them within a hub of all the subspecialists involved in their care so they can see everyone they need to see on a single day. Several faculty members are applying artificial intelligence to underpin new approaches to caring for patients with pulmonary and other diseases. You can learn about the work that nocturnists do when they assume the overnight care of patients in our recently-opened hospital. With an emphasis on diversity, we are making it possible for sexual and gender minority populations here and elsewhere to receive better treatment through the creation of a database by The PRIDE Study. For women in medicine there is a new seminar series tailored for them with space devoted to connect and to share wisdom.
These and the other articles in this annual report are but a snapshot of the larger picture of what we in the Department of Medicine do every day. I hope you will spend some time here learning about the work of our colleagues and take pride in the accomplishments we all achieve through a variety of amazing talents and activities.
Sincerely,
Robert Harrington, MD
Chair, Department of Medicine
Extending our Reach in Diverse Ways
Department of Medicine in Numbers
- 15 Divisions
- 32 Endowed Professors
- 495 Trainees (137 Residents, 154 MD Fellows, 204 Post-docs)
- 375 Active Grants—End of FY19 (4 Program Projects, 74 R-01s, 30 Ks, 22 Us, 10 Training, 41 Federal Awards, 194 Non-Federal)
- 625 Faculty (109 University Tenure and Nontenure Line, 117 Medical Center Line, 359 Clinician Educators, 40 Instructors)
- 813 Staff and Research Associates (570 Staff, 97 Research Associates, 146 Contingent Staff)
- $135M Sponsored Research—FY19 ($79 million in federal grants, $33 million in non-federal grants, $23 million in clinical grants)
Recent Advances in Treatment
Different Approaches to Medical Practice
"They’re leaving a legacy—they want things to be better for the women who come after them.
— Cybele Renault, MD
"You can imagine that if you treat each data source in isolation, you will have some predictive value. But what happens if we put them together?
— Olivier Gevaert, PhD
"It means we really detected a hidden system for classifying patients that is highly relevant to underlying disease biology and clinical outcomes.
— Andrew Sweatt, MD
"I like taking a single thread, combining it with other things, and making an entirely different product. That is also a lot like life—whether you’re at work or at home. We take all the little pieces and stitch them together to make something new and wonderful.
— Heidi Elmore
"If we can show that people who have had many traumatic experiences on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation have certain health outcomes, then that can provide some evidence to actually change policy and laws.
— Mitchell R. Lunn, MD, MAS
"We're bringing in leaders in gastric cancer from all over the world to talk about how we can establish screening guidelines for high-risk populations.
— Joo Ha Hwang, MD, PhD