Convocations are around the corner for the University of Arizona with UA College of Medicine – Tucson medical students graduation ceremony set for Thursday, May 9, 7-9 p.m., and live streaming online via the College’s Facebook webpage as well as the UAHS Webcast webpage (click to view).
 
I look forward to seeing many of you there in our caps and gowns alongside them. It’s always a great feeling to see those students who we’ve had a role in helping to shape into the physicians of the future head off to the next level in their medical careers.
 
A big thank you to everyone for all the hard work that went into managing training schedules for clerkships and sub-internships for this year’s graduates, as well as physicians who stepped up to make this happen. With the overlap with the following class year, there were definite challenges. A doubled student load meant everybody who has a clinic had to take students. Particular thanks to the hospitalists, who usually don’t take students but were willing to serve as preceptors for them. The VA, TMC and other community organizations also upped their game on the number of students accepted for clinical care training.
 
Several of these students were recognized at our recent Annual Awards Assembly at the Arizona Inn, April 30, which you can read about below as well as enjoy a photo album from the evening’s festivities.
 
Now for some spring cleaning.
 
We welcome Angie Korsun, who starts May 6 as the new executive director of transplant services for Banner – University Medicine (BUM) in Tucson and Phoenix. With degrees in nursing, nursing administration and public administration, Korsun has worked in critical care and nursing management and teaching roles, including operational and fiscal management of transplant programs. She started the first liver transplant program in New York in 1988, serving 17 years at Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Since then, she’s managed several multi-organ and bone marrow transplant programs in different states, chairing the first Transplant Administrators Committee for UNOS and helping develop the Community of Practice of Transplant Administrators at the American Society of Transplantation.
 
Lastly, you’ll see several stories below on the new tower opening April 22 at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson—it’s the culmination of four and a half years of sustained work and substantial investment to give our patients and ourselves a state-of-the-art clinical facility for inpatient services. The Imaging Team and Cardiac Services are scheduled to move to the tower May 3, Special Intermediate Care (5E) on May 6 and Cardiovascular IMC (4NE) on May 9.
 
With the Banner – University Medicine North outpatient care center, other new adult ambulatory clinics and the new hospital tower, we definitely have a bigger footprint to be proud of in Tucson and Southern Arizona.

NOTE: As this newsletter was about to post, we learned of the death of Dr. Craig Stump, past chief of the UA Division of Endocrinology, after a brief, serious illness. We sent out a message about this to faculty and staff. You'll also see a tribute to him below, which includes information on where donations may be made in his memory. Services are Wednesday, May 8, 6 p.m., St. Mark Catholic Church, 2727 W. Tangerine Road, Oro Valley.
 

Monica Kraft, MD
Robert & Irene Flinn Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson