Congratulations to Dr. Bruce E. Gould who was awarded the UConn Health Center Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award. Established in 2003, the award recognizes and celebrates excellence in faculty members.

Dr. Gould, professor and associate dean for primary care at the UConn School of Medicine, has earned a reputation as an advocate for public health, primary care and preventative medicine. He also serves as director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program, medical director of Hartford’s Department of Health and Human Services, and medical director of the Burgdorf Health Center, a community clinic serving the underserved population in Hartford’s north end. A primary care general internist, Dr. Gould also is the founder of and adviser to the Mobile Free Migrant Farm Workers Clinic, which has served Connecticut’s migrant farm worker population since 1998.

Dr. Gould is involved in the development and delivery of the medical school’s quality improvement and patient safety curriculum, as well as its nutrition curriculum. He helped establish UConn’s Urban Service Track, a special mentorship program designed to produce doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists committed to serving Connecticut’s urban underserved populations, and the Youth Health Services Corps, a nationally recognized recruitment program that trains and places high school students as volunteers in various health care agencies.

I was truly honored and proud to participate in the Health Center’s Commencement exercises for the first time as Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut. The School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine graduated women and men who were trained by the finest faculty, inspired by their fellow students, and supported by family and friends. These new physicians and dentists embark on a journey well prepared to tackle the challenging face of modern healthcare. I hope they will continue to be passionate about their work, be open to new ideas, and be generous to the people who need them. As caretakers of patients, our goal is to heal some, help many, but comfort all.

The Graduate School also participated in the ceremony, and for the first time, Ph.D. students graduated alongside their physician and dentist colleagues. As someone who has obtained a Ph.D., I well know what a grueling and uncertain task it is. The average student now spends between five and seven years completing their degree. As they embark upon careers of scientific inquiry, I wish them well.

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Congratulations to Kimberly Ruscher, M.D., M.P.H., who was awarded a Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons Leadership Scholarship. The scholarship covers one of several ACS courses and is awarded to only three young surgeons in the United States who best exemplify an important mission of RAS–developing future leaders for the field of surgery. Dr. Ruscher is a PGY-3 resident in General Surgery.

Last Friday, I was asked to be the keynote speaker at Clinical Career Day. Not knowing what to expect, I was very impressed to find approximately 320 students from over 21 high schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts waiting to hear me speak in the Massey and Patterson Auditoriums. The students who participated in Clinical Career Day had the opportunity to ask questions, explore career choices at various booths and participated in breakout sessions that provided information on topics such as rehabilitation services, diagnostic imaging, anatomic pathology and dentistry. Some students even got a chance to go the Operating Room area to view a demonstration of a heart-lung machine and to learn about perfusionist training. I believe this is a fantastic way to introduce high school students to health professions in a fun and interactive environment and an important component of our educational mission as an academic medical center.

Today, seventy-four students at the UConn School of Medicine participated in Match Day, a defining day in their careers. These graduating students found out where they will serve their first few years as a hospital intern and resident. It was an outstanding success for our medical students as 94.6 percent of those seeking residences were matched with some of the most prestigious programs in the country. Sixty-five percent of the class, 48 of the 74 students, were matched with residency programs in New England, with 32 remaining in Connecticut. I extend my congratulations and best wishes to the medical students as they begin the next step of their medical training.

I am proud to announce that the UConn chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s largest, independent medical student organization, has been awarded the prestigious 2009 Paul R. Wright Award for Excellence in Medical Education. The award was presented at AMSA’s 59th Annual Convention in Arlington, Virginia last week. This is the first time UConn has received this prestigious award. AMSA established the Paul R. Wright Award to recognize a medical school, chosen by the nation’s medical students, whose exemplary achievements in medical education foster the development of socially responsive physicians. The area of concentration changes each year to reflect a different dimension of medical education. The emphasis of the 2009 award is Local Advocacy and Activism.

UConn was awarded for its initiative toward achieving quality, affordable, health care for all. Medical students Erica Hinz, Teresa Doucet, Shan Shan Jiang, and Shubha Venkatesh spent a year planning the event. Held last October, their event “Projections: The Faces of Hartford,” not only raised awareness within the community but has provided essential leadership training for local medical students. The event gathered a cross-section of the Hartford community, consisting of health care providers, students from a wide range of disciplines including the health professions, state senators, city officials, teachers, community leaders, and those from the creative community. Congratulations!

The nineteenth annual Medical/Dental Student Scientific Research Day was held Monday, February 23. Oral and poster presentations of summer research projects were highlighted by the students. The fact that our students conduct basic science and clinical research projects help to make our Health Center a “super” academic center, and strengthens our commitment to research as an integral and vital educational component of both schools. I remember how excited I was when I presented my first project and how the experience catalyzed my research interests. As one of my mentors once told me, “To know the literature, you must be the literature.” Congratulations to all the medical and dental students who participated in this rewarding experience.