Notes from Neil

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you get a chance to breath, relax and enjoy the things most important in your life.

On this day of thanks, I want to express my gratitude to those I work with at MHRI, MedStar Health and Georgetown University. We are all so fortunate to work together to create new knowledge that improves the health of our community today, and the future health of all tomorrow.

During this last year, we experienced firsthand the power of science to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.  Medical advances have touched so many lives in so many ways.The COVID-19 vaccines are the result of many years of research and the work of many teams of investigators. Using this foundational knowledge, the first vaccine was created in less than a year for COVID-19 and since authorized for emergency use, more than 445M doses have been delivered in the U.S.  Most recently, even young children across DC are getting the vaccine through the work of public health officials and MedStar Health physicians.

While the vaccine has armed us with a tremendously powerful tool to fight the virus, I stand equally proud and grateful for the work our teams of investigators have done to better understand community spread, track COVID-19 mortality utilizing artificial intelligence, develop new treatment protocols for patients with COVID-19, and identify related and downstream impacts of the pandemic. These are only a handful of the impactful projects happening across the Institute and serve as examples of the potential we have as an organization to positively affect the well-being of our communities (and beyond).

As we continue to make progress in our efforts to overcome the pandemic, our research teams remain steadfast to investigator medicine’s other pressing issues across clinical disciplines and health services. MedStar Health's research will remain a critical tool in our mission to serve our patients, those who care for them, and our communities. I look forward to sharing more of our great work with you in the coming year and take great pride and joy to be part of the team.

With gratitude, Neil

Each summer, MedStar Health and Georgetown University collaborate to provide rising second-year Georgetown medical students the opportunity to participate in research. More than 50 medical students took advantage of this opportunity to get research experience across the MedStar Health academic health system.

To culminate this summer’s work, the students presented at the virtual MedStar-Georgetown Summer Research Capstone with approximately 200 attendees. This is another example of our continued resilience despite the difficulties we have faced as a result of the pandemic. 

The first hour of the evening included remarks from the directors of the four summer research programs, Dr. Munish Goyal, Director, MedStar Summer Scholars Program; Dr. Michelle Roett, Director, DC Area Health Education Center (AHEC); Dr. Yumi Shitama Jarris, Director, Population Health Scholar Track and Dr. Joseph Timpone, Director, GUSOM Mitchell Summer Research Program followed by a presentation from one of the former Mitchell Scholar’s, John O’Neil. Next, there were remarks by Dr. Jamie Padmore, Senior Associate Dean, Medical Education, Georgetown University Medical Center and Dr. Lee Jones, Dean for Medical Education, Georgetown University School of Medicine followed by a Sarah Stewart Lecture by Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan, entitled From the Archive to the Clinic: History of Medicine, Health Equity, and the Case Studies of 1918 Influenza and COVID-19.

The students presented their work in the final hour of the evening, in groups of 5-6 students, each moderated by 1-2 faculty. Topics ranged from COVID-19, HIV, palliative care, population health, orthopedics, surgery, health disparities and medical education, to name a few. 

For those who may be interested, you can view the recordings using the links below.

Plenary Session Recording Here.

Student Presentation Recordings Here.

Congratulations to all our students and a big thank you to all of the mentors and moderators!

Below is my monthly message for the November 2021 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This year, I was curious about how people are using that extra hour. A quick google search reveals a host of suggestions – treating family dinner like a party, posting love notes all over your neighborhood, reigniting a book club with friends or getting creative in the kitchen.  Are these things ‘to do’ just a way to fill the hour?  No, they are suggestions of things that can have a much greater intent and impact.  At the heart of each of these activities are ways we can demonstrate who we are.  Or more preciously, who we want to be.

So, on this day where we wake up with an extra hour, we are all given the opportunity to think about who we want to be – not just in a professional sense (what we do) but rather in a human sense (how we do it, what is important and how we present ourselves).  Vince Lombardi once said, ‘The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.’  It is also the reason that the MedStar Health tagline ‘It’s how we treat people’ rings so true to this concept of what we do and how we do it.

My intent as I write this column is to help others reach their full potential.  It is why I have dedicated so much of my life to advancing health, service to others, and mentorship. Today, I will use my extra hour to advocate for our next generation of MedStar Health scientists.  The MHRI New Investigator Fund provides seed funding for those that joined MedStar Health within the last 5 years so they can do pilot studies that lead to sustainable external funding as an independent investigator. Past funding awardees have gone on to get NIH grants, become scientific directors and/or become leaders in other areas such as quality and safety.  And what is most remarkable is that this program is entirely due to your generous support during the Power to Heal campaign.

Join me in investing in our future of advancing health through research and helping others reach their full potential by donating today. Gratitude matters!

On this glorious fall day, the real beauty of today is a function of what you do with it.  I look forward to making a difference together.

Neil