To our School of Medicine community,
I have been thinking a lot about resilience lately.
It is my way to manage through changing times—changing times in research, education and social and community health focus.
I am sure I am not alone.
Resilience allows me to adapt to challenges and change. I pause and consider, think long term, review the positives, be thankful for progress and accomplishments and relish the successes. I consolidate attention towards the most pressing issues and timelines and couple them to long term goals.
As we enter our academic year, the past year has been, as we all appreciate, a tumult. We have had losses, challenges to our basic premises and priorities, and affronts to many beliefs, values and assumptions, forcing us to reconsider every aspect of our medical, education and research activities.
But resilience during these periods can help us reinvigorate from core strengths, and we have many.
I will quote from a remarkable recent book Listening for a Lifetime written by alumnus David Joseph, MD (MED ‘67), who is still practicing as a psychoanalyst. “Over the course of an extended, successful psychotherapy, both patient and therapist learn to endure any number of unproductive psychotherapeutic hours and to respect that they are both uncomfortable.” (page 129)
Joseph describes the long-term need for trust and the sincere effort to pursue resilience to achieve long term goals.
I quoted this for the medical student M1 day of professionalism in July, and again at a recent double professorship investiture for psychiatry, but it also pertains to our core values in medicine. It resonated with me, and I hope it does for you. While part of the message focuses on the physician-patient relationship—specifically the aspect of listening and pondering—it is instructive in any area of social and professional interaction.
So, with resilience as a firm platform, where are we headed this academic year?
First, our mission is: To improve health globally by linking discovery and innovation to patients and populations in a world class ecosystem of medicine and education.
We will continue our exceptional paths in education and research and strengthen our partnership with our academic medical centers here in Cleveland, regionally, nationally and across the world. If grant support requires a higher bar, we can outjump the competition! If there is hesitancy about support for community health needs, we will collect the data to show its needs and how interventions benefit health. If it is harder to find commercialization partners, we will spread our network to find those interested.
Our community impact projects continue to move forward.
The Master of Public Health (led by Dan Tisch) incorporates community-focused assessments and training in implementation projects to assess health impact. Case Comprehensive Cancer Center community outreach and engagement (led by Erika Trapl with Kris Austin and team) has implemented interventions in cancer screening and in tobacco prevention in neighborhoods and barber shops. The Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health (led by Darcy Freedman) addresses the impact of air quality on health, including mold and dampness in homes and asthma.
These complement many community health programs directed through the Population Research Institute at MetroHealth, led by Sheri Bolen and the state-supported diabetes and hypertension programs that coordinate multiple medical schools in outreach diagnosis and referrals. All of these are supported by research and training programs of the Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC), led by Grace McComsey. Our medical students use this site for early patient exposure in their student run health clinic.
Our health impact discoveries, clinical trials and programs will continue to move forward.
Our Therapeutic Discovery and Translation Initiative, coordinated by Bill Schiemann and Drew Adams, continues to expand with six new competitive application projects this year accepted for pre-commercialization support to conduct critical lead compound evaluation. They are joined by the Harrington Discovery Institute, led by Jonathan Stamler, and by Shaun Stoffer at Lerner Research Institute. Collective efforts include small molecules, nucleic acid genetic constructs and novel cell and gene therapy that will lead to refined approaches to rapid introduction into clinical applications in the fields of cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, HIV, ischemia, joint disease, neonatal neurodegeneration, cystic fibrosis, spinal cord injury and heart failure, all discovered by extraordinary faculty. A number of our past discoveries are in phase II clinical trials, some in phase I and some developing into multi-site and even international clinical trials. Diagnostics efforts now approved under the FDA 510 program help in recognition of esophageal cancer and sickle cell disease. Our patients at Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, University Hospitals and the Veterans Administration Health Center (our Cleveland academic medical centers) are benefiting from opportunities to participate in these early phase clinical trials.
Meanwhile, the ongoing expansion of innovative imaging analytics (MRI, ultrasound, histology) from faculty in the Departments of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering and Pathology, benefits diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic assessment of patients with a variety of diseases. Our top department in National Institutes of Health funding (from Blueridge rankings) is our MetroHealth-based Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, which has brought numerous innovations in neuro-engineering medicine to FDA-approved medical device treatments, with more in the pipeline.
The renewal of the premier National Cancer Institute designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center grant, spearheaded by director Gary Schwartz, provides a platform for continued advances in the early detection and prevention, genomics, pathways, progression, innovative therapeutics and cures of early and advanced cancers and rare cancers across Cleveland academic medical centers. We have several P30s in vision research, digestive diseases and in Alzheimer’s research.
Our advances in tools and technology will continue to move forward.
For the past year we have been intensely ramping up the use of artificial intelligence, large language models and machine learning in all aspects of our training and research activities. We are coordinating with our health systems their implementation of AI-assisted tools in patient encounters and notes, diagnostics and referral activities as we evaluate utility and cost benefit in patient care and outcomes. In our education programs (PhD, MD) we are adding instruction in the basics and use-case for these technologies, and intend to add AI methodology to improve assessment and feedback of training competencies and overall skill attainment. In the School of Medicine administration, we will utilize AI to assist in research and training grants management and reporting.
This fall, we will begin a School of Medicine-wide review of our strategic plan to update the goals, priorities and objectives for 2026-2031. This will begin in the dean’s office with focus groups, faculty town halls and meetings with the department chairs and center directors of each of the five sites of our faculty and students. The draft will be discussed with the Faculty Council and School of Medicine Staff Advisory Board, circulated for comments and presented to the SOM Visiting Committee. It should be completed by spring of 2026. From the above list of activities, if yours is not included—bring it to the strategic plan! Tell us what you will do to continue to move it forward.
To accelerate each of these activities, let alone all of them, takes commitment, focus, attention, listening, inclusivity of perspectives and ingenuity—all part of a resilient fabric that will move our school forward, regardless of challenges and distractions. The urgency of our mission demands it.
Sincerely,
Stan Gerson, MD
Dean, CWRU School of Medicine
Director, National Center for Regenerative Medicine