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Message on behalf of Dr. Sharon Straus, Physician-in-Chief

This past Monday has been called ‘blue Monday’ for what is perceived to be the ‘most depressing day of the year’.  It was likely exacerbated this year by the long stretch of days without sunshine that we experienced this January.  One of the things that always brings warmth and light to counter this is hearing stories about the amazing members of our Department.  In the past ten days, I continued to hear such lovely stories about how caring, kind and compassionate you are.  One of our amazing general internists, Katina Tzanetos, was concerned about a patient who was admitted to our GIM CTU. The patient had unfortunately left their tablet and hearing aid at the originating rehabilitation hospital and Katina drove on a weekend to pick up the patient’s belongings so that they could bring some comfort to the patient. This week, I also heard about one of our fantastic endocrinologists, Catherine Yu, who was asked by one of our subspecialists to assess a patient urgently to organize treatment to facilitate critical and emergent diagnostic imaging at the end of the day. She saw the patient and ensured therapy was initiated within an hour, facilitating rapid assessment and treatment of a critical illness.

These are just two examples of the kind and compassionate patient care that you exhibit regularly in our hospital. And, this does happen regularly and with frequency. When Katina and Catherine were acknowledged for what they did, both expressed surprise and said anyone would do the same. I believe this is true for our Department members at SMH and this is another reason why SMH is a special place to work.

Thanks to Katina and Catherine for bringing some warmth and light into a dark January and to all of you for your continued commitment to each other, our learners and patients.

-Sharon

Please see below for the following updates:

• Celebration of Dr. Paul Kortan’s Life and Legacy – January 30th, 2023 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm
• Announcements – January 2023
• Annual Medical Staff Re-appointments (CMaRS) for 2023/2024 going live the week of February 21, 2023
• New Staff Profiles:  The Department of Medicine is delighted to welcome Dr. Danielle Buell, GIM, and Dr. Natasha Sabur, Respirology, to the active staff!
• Royal College Maintenance of Certification Reminder
• Decanal Committee Recruitment - Temerty Faculty of Medicine
• Dr. Michael Farkouh appointed Associate Dean Research and Clinical Trials at Cedars-Sinai
• Registration Opens March 1st - Clinical Teaching Program at the CFD
• Internal Funding Opportunity: Sarah McComb Award for Cancer Research