Victoria Fraser, MD
Colleagues and friends,
As 2021 comes to a close, it is a good time to reflect on everything we have accomplished together. Despite the ongoing challenges of COVID, resulting in more than five million deaths around the world, and the tremendous suffering in our community caused by social injustice, racial violence, and health inequity, we still have much to be grateful for. Our faculty, staff, and trainees have “leaned in” to these challenges to provide compassionate, equitable care for patients, perform cutting-edge research, and train the next generation of outstanding physicians and scientists.
In the past year, we witnessed the incredible power of scientific discovery and the benefit of public-private partnerships which led to the development of new vaccine technologies, large-scale clinical trials, and delivery of safe and effective COVID vaccines in record time. Our faculty, trainees, and staff led many basic COVID research efforts, clinical trials, and provided exceptional patient care in the COVID units. Biomedical science also led to the development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against COVID which reduced hospitalizations and mortality in high-risk individuals. Our faculty and staff played key roles in establishing and delivering mAb infusions to thousands of patients across the region. Our faculty and staff are now working on plans to prioritize and deliver a new mAb that can be given prophylactically to protect the most severely immunosuppressed patients who cannot mount antibody responses to the COVID vaccine. This holds great potential for our most vulnerable patients. In the next few weeks, we expect approval of new oral therapies which will provide another key weapon in the fight against COVID. This is also good news.
Physician Assistant Philana Liang, PA-C, MPH (ID) prepares a vial. Healthcare workers received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine on December 17, 2020.
Throughout the year, our faculty played key roles in the incident command center, volunteered in COVID clinics, and advised local and state organizations such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, schools, religious organizations, and not-for-profits about how they could operate safely during COVID. We welcomed an outstanding new group of residents and fellows into the department and our faculty provided important leadership in the second phase of the new Gateway medical student curriculum and the Academy of Educators. Our clinicians provided greater patient access in our outpatient clinics, juggling in-person and telehealth visits on campus and numerous satellite locations. We managed record volumes of inpatients at Barnes-Jewish and Barnes-Jewish West County hospitals and expanded our safety, quality, and patient experience efforts to provide high-quality, safe, effective, and patient-centered care to patients with greater severity of illness than we have seen before. Our clinical programs have grown dramatically to meet the needs of the community.
To address health disparities, we expanded clinical services in North County. To promote diversity, inclusion, and equity and to fight structural racism, we held listening sessions, expanded our training on preventing micro and macroaggressions, taught people how to be an ally and an antiracist, created a healing room, developed new videos and programs highlighting our diversity efforts, and engaged more team members in recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, trainees, and staff. We also initiated specific strategic planning efforts focused on equity including new initiatives addressing racial and gender equity and LGBTQIA health.
We witnessed the demolition of Queeny Tower and we made plans for a spectacular new cardiovascular bed tower to be built in its place with a new cardiac care unit, cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery floors with all private rooms. We began construction on the new outpatient cancer care building and we are excited about the new research floors being added to the BJC Institute of Health building which will house new state-of-the-art GMP and BSL3 facilities that are important to our research mission. Our research programs continue to thrive despite COVID with many junior faculty getting their first K and RO1 awards. Our experienced investigators are receiving new grants and renewing existing ones including the Clinical and Translational Science Award. We also successfully implemented WorkDay, our new HR and finance system, which was an incredibly heavy lift and is still a work in progress. I am deeply grateful for the long hours our business office and staff have put in learning and working to improve the new system.
Workers continue the demolition of Queeny Tower.
In January, the department was honored to host Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the inaugural Gerald Medoff Visiting Professor. Dr. Fauci delivered his message “Insights into the COVID-19 Pandemic” online as part of the Department of Medicine’s weekly Grand Rounds. 2021 Grand Rounds continued throughout the year with distinguished speakers from WashU and the national and international medical community, presenting on timely topics in medicine. In 2022, we look forward to welcoming our next Gerald Medoff Visiting Professor, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Washington University alumnus, for Grand Rounds on March 3, 2022.
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gives his lecture virtually because of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Fauci gave the Gerald Medoff Visiting Professor lecture at the Department of Medicine’s virtual Grand Rounds at EPNEC on January 7, 2021.
Over the past year, we’ve added impressive talent to our department leadership including:
- Abby L. Spencer, MD, MS, FACP: Vice Chair of Education for the Department of Medicine
- Anthony Dao, MD: Director of the OUTmed program
- Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, MD: Chief of Medicine at VA St. Louis Health Care System
- Sumanth D. Prabhu, MD: Chief of the Division of Cardiology
- Mark V. Williams, MD, FACP, MHM: Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine
- Thomas Ciesielski, MD: Vice Chair of Patient Safety for the Department of Medicine
- Victor G. Dávila-Román, MD: Vice Chair of Global Health in the Department of Medicine
- Thomas M. De Fer, MD: Chief of the Division of General Medicine
- Elaine M. Majerus, MD, PhD and Stephen T. Oh, MD, PhD: Co-Chiefs of the Division of Hematology
None of this success would be possible without the tireless work and dedication of the talented people within the Department of Medicine. Staff like Nephrology’s Lisa Koester-Wiedemann, ANP, CNN-NP (right), who received the prestigious Dean’s Distinguished Service Award, represent what makes this department truly remarkable. Our most important assets are our people and I am so grateful for all the people who make up the entire Department of Medicine team.
Unfortunately, COVID is not over, it is getting worse. Omicron is much more contagious than the Delta variant and is spreading rapidly around the world. Please encourage those who are eligible to get their COVID booster. Please continue to wear masks and avoid high-risk unmasked activities. Please continue to take good care of yourselves; get exercise, get outside, and get some sleep. Please take time for yourselves and your families to celebrate this holiday season. Your health and wellness are very important.
In summary, we have much to be grateful for. Our faculty, staff, and trainees continue to step up, to lean in, to sacrifice and to serve. You all are tremendously talented, hard-working, and dedicated individuals. We are so fortunate to have you here with us. Thank you for all that you do for the Department of Medicine.
Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy new year.
Vicky Fraser, MD
Chair, Department of Medicine
