Dear Alumni:
Looking ahead to my second year as dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, I am immensely grateful for the talent, dedication and resilience of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni who continue to inspire me with the Aggie spirit of excellence, collaborative leadership and service.
In the face of historic challenges and opportunities, the School of Medicine proved itself to be a community of leaders, research innovators and collaborators that are pushing the boundaries of knowledge. This year, we also elevated our national ranking by U.S. News & World Report to 7th (up from 9th) in primary care and 40th in research.
Our culture of collaboration has been invaluable during the pandemic – bringing together our Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing partners, multidisciplinary physicians and researchers to provide the best education and patient-centered care possible.
However, the pandemic also brought to the forefront the unacceptable inequities in health care and our society at large. It has reaffirmed our commitment to advancing equity and creating an inclusive, positive learning environment for everyone.
Since our health system treated the nation’s first apparent case of community-acquired COVID-19 in February 2020, the School of Medicine has been at the forefront, convening cross-campus research that resulted in high-profile COVID-19 clinical trials and treatments, high-capacity testing, prominent medical journal publications, and extensive national and global media coverage.
I continue to be inspired by your dedication to serving your communities and for generously supporting our mission in this challenging and rapidly changing environment – enabling us to provide the safest and best medical education, innovative research and optimal patient-centered care.
This year, we also achieved faculty approval to adopt the cutting-edge I-EXPLORE curriculum which takes effect August 2021 – emphasizing cross-disciplinary collaboration and the pillars of biomedical, clinical and health system sciences that will enhance the excellent medical education we provide.
In the upcoming year, preparing for our re-accreditation will be a top priority. The I-EXPLORE curriculum implementation is foundational to preparing our students for practicing medicine in a rapidly changing world.
Importantly, increasing diversity and inclusion will continue to be a key area of focus. While we have established our school as one of the most diverse in the nation, we will work to significantly expand diversity in our faculty and leadership to mirror the diversity of the communities we serve.
Combining research with patient care is what academic medicine is all about. I’m pleased to share we received overwhelming support for our current COVID-19 vaccine trial, with 3,500 community members volunteering for 200 spots.
Looking ahead, we will continue to increase clinical trials to offer more patients new, potentially life-saving treatments for COVID-19, cancer and in neuroscience, among others.
We are also committed to sharing our stories of excellence in patient care, research and education with you, and in the coming year will accelerate our communication to alumni and the larger community. You can also keep up-to-date on our COVID-19 research with the Deans Discuss podcast with Michael D. Lairmore, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, and me.
Thank you for your support and partnership in our vital work to advance health equity and the well-being of everyone. We hope you will stay connected and involved, and share your successes with us so we can impart them to our students.
I look forward to meeting more of our alumni community and building upon our exciting successes in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Allison Brashear, M.D., M.B.A.
Dean, School of Medicine
