Administration– Dean's Office

The Dean's Newsletter:
March 26, 2007

Table of Contents

v A Terrific Match Year
v Stanford Excels Again in Competition for Stem Cell Funding
v National Advisory Council Reviews Strategic Plans and Programs
v Stanford Institutes of Medicine Hold Successful Retreats
 
v Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center
v Stanford Institute of Immunity-Transplantation -- Infection
v Mid-year Fundraising Progress -- Update from the Office of Medical Development
v Kidney Transplant Program Excels
v Executive Committee Approves By-Law Revisions for the Medical School Faculty Senate
v STRIDE Takes Another Step
v Announcements from the Office of Diversity and Leadership
v Bicycle Parking and Safety
v Upcoming Events
v Awards and Honors
v Appointments and Promotions

A Terrific Match Year

Although ten days have passed since the results of the 2007 National Resident Matching Program were announced on Thursday, March 15th, the glow has certainly not faded and for good reasons. Our graduating students had a terrific match year. Across the nation, 15,206 students from the 125 allopathic schools of medicine along with 12,738 students from schools of osteopathy, offshore schools and international students applied in the Match. Of these, 93.4% of the US medical school graduates "matched" compared to 73.4% of the second group. At Stanford, 72 students participated in this year's match -- and 100% matched, more than 85% with one of their top three choices. Equally importantly, virtually all of our graduates will be participating in top-flight internship/residency programs. Most (45%) will remain in California, with the next most popular states being Massachusetts, New York and Washington. Overall, approximately 20% of this year's graduates will remain in a Stanford training program, 11% will be at UCSF, and 10% at Harvard programs. Other centers with four or more Stanford students joining residency programs are UCLA, Columbia, and University of Washington -- and some 20 other major academic medical centers across the nation will have one or more of our graduates.

As I have mentioned in previous reports, popularity for various residency programs changes over the years. Stanford students are both similar as well as different compared to national peers. Medicine, pediatrics and surgery (along with surgical specialties) are the most popular -- but this year eight students will be going into Radiation Oncology -- which must be a record number among any medical school!

This year's Match included students who began with our New Stanford Curriculum in 2003 as well as students who have completed 5 or more years at Stanford. We have reason to be proud of each of them. In case you haven't seen the list, here is where our students will be going:

2007 Residency Match Results

Abnousi, Freddy UC San Francisco-CA Orthopaedic Surgery
Anderson, Ellen Stanford Univ Progs-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  Stanford Univ Progs-CA Radiation Oncology
Bakri, Amit Mt Sinai SOM/Cabrini-NY Medicine-Preliminary
  Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA Radiology-Diagnostic
Berquist, Rebecca Stanford Univ Progs-CA Pediatrics
Chacon-Lopez, Quetzalsol UC San Francisco-Fresno-CA Emergency Medicine
Chan, Ian Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA Surgery-Preliminary
  New York Eye & Ear Infirm-NY Ophthalmology
Chang, Gwendolen Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Internal Medicine
Chao, Annie O'Connor Hospital-CA Family Medicine
Chavez, Marisa Santa Clara Valley MC-CA Obstetrics-Gynecology
Chen, Richard Santa Clara Valley MC-CA Transitional
  Stanford Univ Progs-CA Dermatology
Chow, Amy Stanford Univ Progs-CA Pediatrics
Dorth, Jennifer Santa Clara Valley MC-CA Transitional
  Duke Univ Med Ctr-NC Radiation Oncology
Edgerley, Laura Stanford Univ Progs-CA Emergency Medicine
Enriquez, Maria Melissa Harbor-UCLA Med Ctr-CA Transitional
  UCLA Medical Center-CA Radiology-Diagnostic
Forsythe, Kevin Kaiser Perm-Santa Clara-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  Mt Sinai Hospital-NY Radiation Oncology
George, Adia Northwestern McGaw/CMH-IL Pediatrics
Gonzalez, Oscar Stanford Univ Progs-CA Internal Medicine
Green, Aileen U Wisconsin Sch of Med & Pub Health-WI Family Medicine
Hanft, Simon NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY Surgery-Preliminary
  Columbia University-NY Neurological Surgery
Harrington, Katherine Stanford Univ Progs-CA General Surgery
Hilgenberg, Sarah U Washington Affil Hosps-WA Pediatrics
Hong, Wan-Jen Stanford Univ Progs-CA Internal Medicine
Hope, Thomas Kaiser Permanente-SF-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  UC San Francisco-CA Radiology-Diagnostic
Howard, Neva NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY Pediatrics
Ishida, Julie UC San Francisco-CA Internal Medicine
Johnson, Khaliah Johns Hopkins Hosp-MD Pediatrics
Keller, Steven Massachusetts Gen Hosp-MA Internal Medicine
Ketchum, Eric U Washington Affil Hosps-WA Internal Medicine
Ketunuti, Melissa Georgetown Univ Hosp-DC General Surgery
Kirschen, Matthew Stanford Univ Progs-CA Pediatrics
Kunnavatana, Sermsin Stanford Univ Progs-CA Trans/Anes Santa Clara
  Stanford Univ Progs-CA Anesthesiology
Laird, Ashley Harbor-UCLA Med Ctr-CA Emergency Medicine
Langley, Sarah Kaiser Permanente-SF-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  UC San Francisco-CA Anesthesiology
Lansdale, Meagan CA Pacific Med Center-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  UC San Francisco-CA Anesthesiology
Lares, Eddie Loma Linda University-CA Emergency Medicine
Lawson, Elise UCLA Medical Center-CA General Surgery
Le, Brian Northwestern McGaw/NMH/VA-IL Surgery-Preliminary
  Northwestern Univ Feinberg School-IL Urology
Lee, Byung Rhode Island Hosp/Brown U-RI Orthopaedic Surgery
Liu, Jen-Jane Stanford Univ Progs-CA Urology
Loza, Maria Arrowhead Reg Med Ctr-CA Transitional
  U Southern California-CA Emergency Medicine
Manoli, Devanand UC San Francisco-CA Psychiatry
McDonald, Erin Georgetown Univ Hosp-DC General Surgery
Meraz, Sofia Kaiser Perm-Orange Co-CA Family Practice
Mitiku, Nesanet Alameda Co Med Ctr-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  U Washington Affil Hosps-WA Phys Medicine & Rehab
Muchmore, Mary-Elizabeth UC San Francisco-CA Internal Medicine
Nehra, Deepika Massachusetts Gen Hosp-MA General Surgery
Neice, Andrew Stanford Univ Progs-CA Trans/Anes Santa Clara
  Stanford Univ Progs-CA Anesthesiology
Nguyen, Long NYP Hosp-Weill Cornell Med Ctr-NY Psych/Payne Whitney
Okeke, Lance Duke Univ Med Ctr-NC Internal Medicine
Peck, Melicent Stanford Univ Progs-CA Internal Medicine
Ramachandran, Ravi Yale-New Haven Hosp-CT Orthopaedic Surgery
Ray, Emily Virginia Mason Med Ctr-WA Internal Medicine
Rice-Townsend, Samuel Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA General Surgery
Ryou, Thomas NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY Pediatrics
Sanchez, Daniel UCLA Medical Center-CA Internal Medicine
Satterwhite, Thomas Stanford Univ Progs-CA Plastic Surgery
Shapiro, Lauren Santa Clara Valley MC-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  Memorial Sloan-Kettering-NY Radiation Oncology
Shivaram, Giridhar Swedish Med Center-WA Surgery-Preliminary
  U Washington Affil Hosps-WA Radiology-Diagnostic
Sims, Leroy Harbor-UCLA Med Ctr-CA Emergency Medicine
So, Tracy Barnes-Jewish Hosp-MO Plastic Surgery
Song, Suisui Santa Clara Valley MC-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  Univ of Chicago Med Ctr-IL Radiation Oncology
Spanogle, Joshua Stanford Univ Progs-CA Medicine-Preliminary
  Mayo School of Grad Med Educ-MN Dermatology
Sutphin, Patrick Massachusetts Gen Hosp-MA Medicine-Preliminary
  Massachusetts Gen Hosp-MA Radiology-Diagnostic
van Roessel, Peter NYP Hosp-Columbia Univ Med Ctr-NY Psych-Columbia-NYPH
Vittor, Amy Hosp of the Univ of PA Internal Medicine
Westover, Kenneth Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA Med-Prelim/Brig/Faulk
  Brigham & Womens Hosp-MA Radiation Oncology
Wong, Lisa Colorado Health Foundation-CO Transitional
  U Colorado-CO Ophthalmology
Wu, Amy UC San Diego Med Ctr-CA Otolaryngology
Yong, Celina UC San Francisco-CA Internal Medicine

In addition, students from across the nation will be joining some 22 Stanford Programs at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, the Palo Alto VA Medical Center and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Our various Program Directors and clinical department chairs have expressed their pleasure with various departmental Match results -- so the level of happiness is high. Congratulations to all!

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Stanford Excels Again in Competition for Stem Cell Funding

On Friday, March 16th the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC) for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine announced the approval of an additional $75.7M of funding for established scientists involved in stem cell research. In this latest round of grants, 29 were awarded to an applicant pool of 70 investigators from 23 institutions. Stanford received six of the awards and when one of our recent recruits (Dr. Rene Reijo Pera from UCSF) is added, we will have 7 of the 29 Comprehensive Awards (totaling $17,678,661). Adding in the recent SEED Grants (where Stanford also had top billing) and the Training Grant (which received the highest score in the competition), Stanford has received 20 of the 119 awards for a total of $28.9M. Clearly this is a terrific success and signifies that high quality of our faculty. But it is also a beginning -- and a recognition -- that the hard work of advancing knowledge in stem cell research and regenerative medicine is truly underway. Obviously we are all hopeful that this will be the beginning of real progress. Congratulations to all!

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National Advisory Council Reviews Strategic Plans and Programs

On Monday, March 19th we had our fourth annual site visit by the School of Medicine's National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC was appointed almost five years ago to review the strategic directions of the medical school and report their findings and observations to the Provost and President. The NAC, chaired by Dr. Ed Benz, President of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, includes Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF; Dr. Tom Boat, Chair of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital; Mariann Byerwalter, University Trustee; Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, University Trustee; Dr. Dan Lowenstein, Professor of Neurology, UCSF; Dr. Jim Madara, Vice President and Dean, University of Chicago School of Medicine; Dr. William Peck, former Vice Chancellor and Dean, Washington University; Dr. David Satcher, President of Morehouse College; and Dr. Bill Stead, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs & Chief Information Officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The past three reviews by the NAC have been quite laudatory -- which is, of course, reassuring.

This year's meeting focused on our burgeoning efforts in clinical and translational research and the roles of the institutes, departments and centers. It included presentations by Dr. Harry Greenberg, Senior Associate Dean of Research and Joseph D. Grant Professor of Medicine, on the scope of our activities in preparation for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) and by Dr. Bev Mitchell, Deputy Director and George E. Becker Professor of Medicine, on the status of the Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center. Both presentations gave evidence of efforts now underway at Stanford to enhance translational research by interdisciplinary efforts that cut across basic and clinical science departments as well as various schools at Stanford. We are hoping to hear any day now about the final status of our application to become an NCI-designated cancer center, and we expect to learn the reviews of our CTSA application in May or June. It is clear, however, that these two efforts have played a major role in furthering our mission in clinical and translational research.

During a working lunch, Dr Hannah Valantine, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Leadership and Professor of Medicine, gave an update on current programs and efforts to enhance diversity in the School of Medicine and to train future leaders. In doing so she was joined by some of the recent graduates of the Faculty Fellows Program, each of whom shared their views and evaluation of the program and commented on how the program influenced their own career development. The Fellows who participated were Drs. Myriam Curet, Professor of Surgery; Ricardo Dolmetsch, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology; Tracy George, Assistant Professor of Pathology; Sabine Girod, Assistant Professor of Surgery; Tony Oro, Associate Professor of Dermatology, and Eric Sibley, Associate Professor of Pediatrics. They all underscored how much they had learned during the year-long program through their interactions with each other and their mentors, as well as through presentations by leaders about the "leadership journey." Perhaps most importantly, they each commented on how the experience had enabled them to feel more a part of the school and its mission. It also gave them a greater appreciation for the value of a diverse community that could more effectively share ideas and experiences and, based on that, address questions they might have otherwise been overlooked. This session was quite interactive and it seemed to be very well appreciated by the members of the National Advisory Council.

The next panel featured some of our new department chairs, each of whom addressed some of the challenges and opportunities they face in their individual department and how they are seeking to engage in interactions with the Stanford Institutes of Medicine as well as other programs in the School and University. The new department chairs who participated in this panel were Drs. Jonathan Berek, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology; Dr. Ralph Horwitz, Professor and Chair of Medicine; Dr. Karla Kirkegaard, Professor and Chair of Microbiology & Immunology; Dr. Frank Longo, George E. and Lucy Becker Professor and Chair of Neurology; and Dr. Roel Nusse, Professor and Chair of Developmental Biology.

I gave a presentation on our master facility plan based on the scope of the workforce projections we have carried out during the past year and the funding plan that has been developed. I shared the bold and ambitious plan that we have put together, which includes the School, the Stanford Hospital & Clinics and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. While this plan continues to evolve and develop, a reasonably complete portrait of it was presented in the December 4 2006 issue of the Dean's Newsletter (see: http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/12_04_06.html).

At the close of the day the committee shared their observations, views and recommendations with President Hennessy. I expect to receive a written report in the next several weeks and will share the outcome with you -- although I expect it will be quite supportive and complimentary.

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Stanford Institutes of Medicine Hold Successful Retreats

The Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center

On Monday, March 12th Members of the Stanford Cancer Center gathered at the Quadrus Conference Center for the first annual Members Retreat. The symposium featured a keynote address by Dr. David Livingston, the Chief of the Division of Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, where he is also the Emil Frei Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Livingston reviewed the focus and planning activities that led to the development of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center including how it is currently organized and how it helps coordinate basic research, clinical research and population sciences. The 933 members of the Center are distributed throughout the medical school as well as the five major teaching hospitals. The Center is employing a matrix model that aligns discipline-based faculty with disease- based groups. The Center also provides a number of cores that provide both service and opportunities for innovation. According to Dr. Livingston, since its inauguration, the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer has stimulated new clinical trials and permitted better management over the progress of clinical trials. It has also served as a magnet for investigators and students to engage in new collaborations and opportunities.

Speaking about the new Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Bev Mitchell, Deputy Director and the George E. Becker Professor of Medicine, noted that we should be receiving news within weeks about our application for NCI designation based on the excellent proposal submitted in February 2006, which included very strong basic science along with excellent clinical and population science. Dr. Mitchell noted that across the University there are now 270 Cancer Center members who have major areas of focus including cancer stem cells, imaging, immunology, genomics, cancer biology and clinical programs in lymphoma and bone marrow transplantation. But Dr. Mitchell also noted that we have a need to develop more robust solid tumor programs. She cited in particular a center for breast cancer -- that could be part of a Women's Cancer Center -- as well as one for GI malignancies, prostate cancer, head & neck tumors and brain cancer. She also commented that we have work to do to further build our efforts in cancer genetics, novel therapeutics and preventive strategies and to further build the infrastructure to support a clinical trials system. Importantly, this will require a number of strategic recruitments that will cut across departments -- a number of which are now underway. Similarly, evaluation and support for shared resources will be critical as well as the further enhancement of population sciences and improved alliance with the Northern California Cancer Center.

The retreat also focused on mechanisms to promote translational research and on career development, particularly of younger faculty members -- including ways of facilitating collaborations among disease based investigators with those engaged in population sciences. Breakout sessions dealt with population sciences and genomics, cancer imaging, cancer stem cells, improving clinical trials and shared resources.

I was able to attend the morning session of the Retreat, and what was most striking to me was the spirit of collaboration and interest among the attendees. I well remember the tentativeness that existed when the question of forming a comprehensive cancer center was posed some five years ago. Now there is no question -- and the Stanford Comprehensive Center is poised to be an essential asset in our basic as well as clinical efforts in cancer research and care. Special thanks go to the leaders who brought this to fruition, particularly Drs. Karl Blume, Steve Leibel, Bev Mitchell and Irv Weissman. But thanks also to the faculty whose tremendous interest has emerged during the past few years and who will clearly propel Stanford in excellence in the years ahead.

[Cancer Center site: http://cancer.stanford.edu/ ]

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The Stanford Institute of Immunity, Transplantation and Infection

The Stanford Institute of Immunity, Transplantation and Infection (ITI) held its first Retreat on March 11-12th, with over sixty faculty who joined in a very lively series of research presentations and discussions. Dr. Mark Davis, Burt and Marion Avery Professor in Immunology and Director of ITI, provided this update of the Retreat. Per Mark, the presentations "were notable for both their range and quality, as cutting edge clinical trials were juxtaposed with novel basic research, and all had to strain at times to assimilate talks on unfamiliar areas. It was an intense day and a half of almost non-stop presentations, and much was learned (and discussed) by all. There were presentations on the different ways pathogens such as the Hepatitis C virus subvert host defenses, how 90% of the cells in the human body have resident microbes, and also about a new gene expression 'signature" of transplant tolerance.

"The session chaired by Dr. Sam Strober was particularly relevant to what the Stanford Institutes of Medicine seek to foster. In his introduction he chronicled many years of work in a mouse model showing how radiation aimed specifically at the lymphoid organs could allow mismatched organ or tissue transplants to be tolerated by the host and vice versa. This has been very successful in curtailing often-fatal graft-versus-host reactions in bone marrow transplant patients and was developed to the point where it was ready to try with organ transplants. This led to a presentation by Dr. Stephan Busque, who described the first three preliminary trials of this approach with kidney transplantation. While the early results were negative, and the patients had to be returned to immunosuppressive drug regimes, after continuous improvement of the protocol, the third clinical trial appears to offers substantial hope, with at least one of the patients being rejection free for months, without having to take the large number of drugs needed to suppress organ rejection. This is exactly the kind of close partnership between basic scientists and clinicians that we need to solve some of the very toughest medical problems.

"Another important "first" at the meeting was the presentation of Stanford's new Human Immune Monitoring Center. Under the direction of Dr. David

Hirschberg, this unique facility has just gotten started and will provide "one stop shopping" for the analysis of clinical samples for a wide variety of immune markers and signs of infectious disease. It will allow a great deal more data to be obtained from a clinical sample (in this case blood) and thus a much better understanding of a particular patients' immune status and prognosis. All members of ITI and the Stanford community are invited to use the HIMC, and it is expected to have broad applicability. It is also hoped that surveying across both healthy people and those suffering from specific diseases will help us to derive specific "metrics" of immune health that could inform medical decision making in much the same way that blood cholesterol analysis informs decisions or advice pertaining to cardiovascular health. There were also excellent presentations on autoimmunity, bioinformatics, liver assist devices and liver cell engineering.

"In the evening we heard talks from June Lang, the senior development officer for ITI, about fundraising, and a particularly rousing talk by Dr. Paul Utz about the very innovative and successful high school summer program that each year brings twenty of some of the most talented high school students in the country to receive basic lab training and then work directly in one of the Stanford research labs. While they currently go to immunology labs for the most part, this program could easily be expanded throughout ITI and even to the other Institutes.

"In the short session Monday morning we learned about venomous snakes as pathogens, the use of 2D NMR to determine a crucial mechanism in the way a virus takes over a cell. We also saw how mutagenesis of a cell death promoting protein turned it into an inhibitor of cell death and thus a possible "drug" that can be used to help prevent graft rejection. The sessions ended with an excellent presentation by Dr. Man Wah Tan, detailing the many pathways in the nematode "C. elegans" that were important to combating infectious diseases, including some that were only thought to involve nervous system function previously. Mark Davis closed the meeting by thanking the organizers-including Michele King, ITI's Program manager, who made all the arrangements and made sure the meeting was going smoothly, and also Larry Steinman, Karla Kirkegaard, Carlos Esquival, Sam Strober and Garry Fathman for organizing their sessions so well."

[ITI Site: http://iti.stanford.edu/ ]

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Mid-year Fundraising Progress - Update from the Office of Medical Development

I have received this very encouraging news from Doug Stewart, Associate Vice President for Medical Development and Alumni Affairs. For the first six months of FY2007 we are ahead of all 12 months of the previous FY, both in cash and in new pledges.  Specifically, for the six months that ended on February 28, 2007, combined School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital new activity (new gifts and new pledges) totaled $173,099,203 - compared with $53,694,709 for the same six months the previous year - and compared with a total of $156,034,737 for all 12 months of last fiscal year (our previous record).

Moreover, for the six months that ended on February 28, 2007, combined School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital cash received (outright gifts and pledge payments) totaled $126,331,149 - compared with $50,285,399 for the same six months the previous year - and compared with a total of $115,271,429 for all 12 months of last fiscal year. 

This is excellent progress, and it is a wonderful testament to the efforts of our entire Office of Medical Development and to the commitment and generosity of those who have given in support of the goals and bold vision of the Stanford School of Medicine and the Stanford Hospital and Clinics.  Thank you.

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Kidney Transplant Program Excels

The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients lists the Stanford Renal Transplant Team as the national leader in one and three year survival rates. This service continues to do a wonderful job and they deserve our thanks and admiration. Special thanks to the team leaders Stephan Busque (Surgery) and John Scandling (Medicine).

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Executive Committee Approves By-Law Revisions for the Medical School Faculty Senate

In a recent Dean's Newsletter, (http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/02_26_07.html#5), I told you about the major revisions that had been drafted to the By-Laws of the School of Medicine Faculty Senate. I let you know at that time that these extensive revisions had been approved by the Senate and were on their way to the School's Executive Committee. I am now pleased to report that, at the March 16th Executive Committee meeting, the revisions were passed unanimously by that body. The next step will be an email ballot process of the entire electorate, which consists of all members of the Academic Council, the Medical Center Line, and the Clinician Educator Line. Members of these groups should expect to receive their ballots in the near future. Once this step has been accomplished, the revised By-Laws will be submitted to President Hennessy and then to the University's Board of Trustees, where they, hopefully, will receive final approval. I look forward to their implementation, which I believe will result in a significant improvement in the clarity of the governance of the School of Medicine.

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STRIDE Takes Another Step

The STRIDE (Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment) initiative is a multi-year informatics research and development project led by Dr Henry Lowe, Senior Associate Dean for Information Resources and Technology, to support clinical and translational research at Stanford by creating an integrated, standards-based clinical data warehouse and research data management platform. The project is based in the Center for Clinical Informatics within the School of Medicine's Office of Information Resources and Technology (IRT). The STRIDE team works closely with both Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford Hospital and Clinics to establish electronic data feeds from hospital clinical systems into the STRIDE clinical data warehouse. As of March 2007, STRIDE contains clinical information on over three quarters of a million pediatric and adult patients cared for at Stanford. STRIDE is a highly secure environment utilizing encryption, fine-grained access control and robust auditing. Access to STRIDE clinical data for research purposes requires Stanford IRB review and approval.

To assist Stanford faculty researchers in identifying patients who may be eligible to participate in clinical research studies, the STRIDE team has developed the Anonymous Patient Cohort Discovery Tool. This cross-platform application will allow Stanford School of Medicine faculty researchers to directly query STRIDE's clinical data warehouse of over 73 million clinical observations, to ask the question "might a cohort of Stanford University Medical Center patients with these characteristics exist in the STRIDE clinical data warehouse?" The tool does not expose any individual patient identifiers or clinical data but rather uses criteria such as demographics, diagnosis, procedures performed, clinical reports and laboratory test results to determine the existence, and the approximate size of, anonymous patient cohorts. The system uses statistical techniques to prevent identification of individual patients. This patient cohort discovery process would normally be preparatory to HIPAA-compliant chart review and IRB-approved clinical data extraction or patient contact for research purposes. A beta-test of the STRIDE Anonymous Patient Cohort Discovery Tool will commence in mid-April. Eligible Stanford School of Medicine faculty will be contacted in early April to invite their participation in this evaluation.

Additional information on the STRIDE project and the STRIDE Anonymous Patient Cohort Discovery Tool beta-test is available at http://clinicalinformatics.stanford.edu/STRIDE/.

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Announcements from the Office of Diversity and Leadership

I was pleased to receive the following announcements from Dr. Hannah Valantine, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Leadership, and Claudia Morgan, Associate Director.

First, the 2007 School of Medicine Faculty Fellows have been selected. The Fellows meet regularly to learn from experienced leaders and to receive mentoring and guidance about leadership, both individually and collectively. The program represents an important component of our leadership enhancement efforts throughout the School and Medical Center (see: http://deansnewsletter.stanford.edu/archive/11_28_05.html#2).

A review committee consisting of Drs. Marcia Stefanick, Marlene Rabinovitch, Craig Albanese, Ray Gaeta, Fernando Mendoza, Hannah Valantine, Alice Whittemore, and Julie Moseley selected fourteen fellows from a large pool of nominations.

We congratulate the following Faculty Fellows: Drs. Manuel Amieva (Pediatrics, Microbiology & Immunology), Maxwell Boakye (Neurosurgery), Stephan Busque (Surgery), LaVera Crawley (Pediatrics), Mark Genovese (Medicine), Garry Gold (Radiology), Cheryl Gore-Felton (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), Amreen Husain (OB/GYN), Sheri Krams (Surgery), Michael McConnell (Medicine), Sylvia Plevritis (Radiology), Phil Tsao (Medicine), Ann Weinacker (Medicine), and Sherry Wren (Surgery). We thank the nominators for their efforts in submitting the many worthy candidates.

Second, the winners of the 2007 Diversity Faculty Fellowship Awards have been chosen. This program, modeled after the Center of Excellence Faculty Fellowship Program, is directed at enhancing the diversity (broadly defined) of the faculty of the School of Medicine by supporting the development of assistant professors who contribute to such diversity. The intent of the fellowship is to enhance the research productivity of junior faculty in order to advance their progress towards promotion. Congratulations to the following six awardees: Uma Sundram MD, PhD (Pathology, Dermatology), Jennifer Cochran PhD (Bioengineering), Lauren Gerson MD, MSc (Medicine), Joseph Liao MD (Urology), Manuel Amieva MD, PhD (Pediatrics, Microbiology & Immunology), and Tirin Moore PhD (Neurobiology). Congratulations to all!

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Bicycle Parking and Safety

As many of you now know, we will soon be starting construction work in anticipation of the building of the Learning and Knowledge Center and the Stanford Institutes of Medicine 1. Much of this work will involve re-routing and updating utilities, creating an underground tunnel delivery system and moving the loading dock on the south side of the medical school campus. To do this work most of the parking spaces in the ground lots south of the Beckman Center and CCSR will disappear. Importantly, once this happens those spaces will not return and alternate parking will be in the Stock Farm garage and parking lots.

With the reduction in parking, many faculty, students and staff have begun using bicycles for transportation (which is great news) and a number of you have asked what type of bike parking and safety will be available. According to our facilities team, a number of actions are underway:

I hope this addresses some of the questions that have been raised. That said, I would be remiss in not reminding all bike riders to be sure that they are wearing a bike helmet and that they have front and rear lights when they are riding at night. Bike safety on campus remains appalling and I continue to strongly encourage all riders to ride with safety.

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Announcement: Women in Biosciences

On Tuesday, May 1st Stanford will celebrate Women in the Biosciences with a symposium in the Clark Center from 2-5 PM. Among the featured speakers are: Julie Theriot (Biochemistry and Microbiology & Immunology), Judith Frydman (Biological Sciences), Daria Mochly-Rosen (Chemical and Systems Biology), Anne Villeneuve (Developmental Biology), Michele Calos (Genetics), Merritt Maduke (Molecular & Cellular Physiology) and Jennifer Raymond (Neurobiology).

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Awards and Honors

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Appointments and Promotions

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A downloadable Microsoft Word version of the newsletter is available. If clicking on this following link does not initiate a download, right-click (Windows) or click-and-hold (Mac), then use the command most similar to "Download Link To Disk" or "Save This Link As" and save the Word file to your disk.

Microsoft Word version: DeanNews03-26-07.doc

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