Indiana University School of Medicine celebrated another banner year in 2017, making continued strides to enhance medical education and pioneer new treatments for patients in Indiana and around the world.
Much of our success is due to the alumni who serve as volunteer faculty, mentor students and generously support the school through their giving.
As the year comes to a close, here are just a few examples of how we are preparing healers and transforming health.
Welcoming the Class of 2021
IU School of Medicine welcomed 364 first-year students to the Class of 2021. They are now studying at all nine campuses around the state.
Approximately 7,200 students applied – or 20 applicants for every available spot, proving IU School of Medicine has a strong reputation nationally.
About 80 percent of students in the class hail from Indiana.
Celebrating Our Recent Graduates
In May, we graduated 331 medical students who join the ranks of IU School of Medicine alumni. They are now completing their residencies, with more than 30 percent matching in Indiana. We also sent students to other premier programs such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale, and Duke.
Altogether, our students matched into 20 different specialties, and about 40 percent matched into what we consider to be primary care residencies: internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, and meds-peds.
Adding Residency Positions
The school received permission this summer to add seven new residency positions to address Indiana’s critical need for more physicians. The positions are in obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and pediatric psychiatry, and two positions each will be added in emergency medicine and family medicine.
The Indiana Graduate Medical Education Board also voted to provide funds for IU School of Medicine to develop new residency programs in locations that do not yet offer them.
Five spots for family medicine residents are expected to open in Lafayette beginning in July 2018 expanding to fifteen over three years. More than 60 residency positions are expected to open in Southwestern Indiana over four years beginning in 2019. The school, in a cooperative effort with various Indiana hospitals, is also studying the feasibility of establishing residency programs elsewhere in the state.
Building for the Future
A first-class medical school requires first class-facilities, and IU School of Medicine is investing in its campuses around the state. A new multi-institutional health sciences campus is under construction in downtown Evansville. The campus will be shared by health-related programs for IU School of Medicine – Evansville, IU School of Dentistry, the University of Evansville, and the University of Southern Indiana.
In addition, construction is expected to begin in January 2018 on a new Regional Academic Health Center in Bloomington that will house Indiana University Health Bloomington inpatient and outpatient services as well as an academic facility that will be used for health sciences education and research at Indiana University. Finally, planning is also underway for a new Adult Academic Health Center in Indianapolis that is expected to include a new medical education building.
Recruiting New Leaders
IU School of Medicine continued to recruit top talent to join our faculty in 2017. Among those named to leadership positions are:
Paul M. Wallach, MD, Executive Associate Dean of Educational Affairs and Continuous Improvement
Wallach, a nationally recognized leader in academic medicine, will formally join the school in February 2018. He is currently vice dean for academic affairs and professor of medicine for Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Georgia’s only public medical school, consisting of five campuses including the main campus in Augusta. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Rollins College and a doctor of medicine degree from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of South Florida and a faculty fellowship in general internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
David K. Wallace, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute
Wallace joined IU School of Medicine Nov. 1 from Duke University, where he served as professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics, vice chair for clinical strategic planning, and director of clinical research for the Duke University Department of Ophthalmology. Born in Indianapolis and raised in South Bend, Dr. Wallace earned his undergraduate degree from IU and is an alumnus of IU School of Medicine’s class of 1990. He completed his residency training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and he was fellowship trained in pediatric ophthalmology at IU School of Medicine.
Michael A. Weiss, MD, PhD, MBA, Chair of Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Weiss comes to IU School of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where he has been chair of biochemistry, a distinguished research professor and the Cowan-Blum professor of cancer research. In addition to his role as chair, he will serve as director of chemical biology and biotherapeutics for the Indiana University Precision Health Initiative. Dr. Weiss earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School/MIT Program in Health Sciences & Technology. He also has an AB in physics and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard and attended Trinity College in Oxford, England, as a Harvard Sheldon Travelling Scholar. While teaching at Case Western Reserve, he took a sabbatical to study at the university’s Weatherhead School of Management, earning an MBA in 2010.
