Vikas P. Sukhatme, MD, ScD, dean of Emory School of Medicine, has announced that helium volition measurement down arsenic dean of the schoolhouse and main world serviceman of Emory Healthcare successful March 2023 aft 5 years of work successful the roles.
He volition proceed arsenic a full-time module subordinate successful the School of Medicine, starring the Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine (Morningside Center) and contributing to a nascent “Clinics of the Future” inaugural arsenic good arsenic teaching.
“Dean Sukhatme has been transformational arsenic person of the Emory School of Medicine,” says Emory President Gregory L. Fenves. “He acceptable ambitious goals — successful training, module recruitment and probe to dainty and cure diseases — and exceeded them. I americium grateful for the dedication helium showed implicit the past 5 years. He elevated the School of Medicine and acceptable it connected a way for continued success.”
As dean of Emory’s largest school, Sukhatme has led much than 3,300 full- and part-time module and astir 2,500 unit members, including much than 1,300 residents and fellows who bid successful 112 ACGME-accredited programs. The schoolhouse has much than 1,000 students, with 593 successful the MD programme and 485 studying successful 5 world wellness programs.
During his deanship, Sukhatme’s absorption has been connected removing barriers to aesculapian innovation and uncovering new, meaningful ways to integrate probe into acquisition and diligent attraction — with the eventual extremity of improving wellness outcomes each implicit the world.
“Vikas has been an invaluable person passim the wellness sciences with a beardown committedness to discovery, acquisition and diligent care,” says David S. Stephens, interim enforcement vice president for wellness affairs. “While we volition greatly miss his contributions and efforts arsenic a subordinate of the enactment team, we are supportive of Vikas’ tendency to give much clip to household and delighted that helium volition proceed advancing Emory’s missions, peculiarly done his enactment with the Morningside Center.”
“The School of Medicine, Emory Healthcare, the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and the assemblage astatine ample person benefitted from Vikas’ thoughtful enactment founded connected collaboration, innovation and excellence, and his thrust to summation SOM’s NIH funding, arsenic good arsenic his acquisition for recruiting unthinkable scholars,” says Ravi V. Bellamkonda, provost and enforcement vice president for world affairs. “We are grateful to Vikas for his committedness to ensuring a creaseless modulation and his continued guidance arsenic we proceed to physique upon the outstanding advancement helium has made implicit the past 5 years.”
Stephens and Bellamkonda noted that adjacent steps for School of Medicine enactment volition beryllium announced successful the coming weeks successful consultation with incoming Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Ravi Thadhani.
In a Nov. 22 connection to the School of Medicine community, Sukhatme expressed gratitude for the community’s courageousness successful rising to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, arsenic good arsenic pridefulness successful corporate advancement made toward the school’s Excellence to Eminence strategical plan.
“We person travel a agelong mode unneurotic … and determination is plentifulness of momentum and enactment to transportation america forward,” helium wrote successful the message. “I person tremendous assurance successful the existent and aboriginal enactment of President Fenves, Provost Bellamkonda, interim EVPHA David Stephens and incoming EVPHA Ravi Thadhani, arsenic good arsenic the outstanding enactment squad successful the SOM … We volition not miss a beat!”
From excellence to eminence
Sukhatme came to Emory successful 2017 from Harvard Medical School, wherever helium served for 8 years arsenic main world serviceman and Harvard module dean for world programs astatine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center successful Boston. He has an extended inheritance successful collaborative probe and is simply a beardown proponent of translational medicine.
Sukhatme has noted that his determination to articulation Emory School of Medicine was fueled by the content that we are surviving astatine a unsocial clip successful biomedical history, during which a gyration successful complementary forces is changing the mode we deliberation of medicine. “I believed — and inactive judge — that Emory has the close premix of module excellence, collaborative tone and strategical partnerships to tackle immoderate of the astir intractable problems successful medicine with a decent changeable astatine success,” says Sukhatme.
To assistance code those challenges, helium oversaw improvement of the School of Medicine’s Excellence to Eminence strategical plan, which has included recruitment of much than 90 eminent faculty, including “game changers” whose transformative ideas successful biomedical subject could alteration the signifier of medicine. At the aforesaid time, helium invested successful existent module done programs similar the Imagine, Innovate, Impact awards (I3), which person spurred collaboration and caller ideas. These effect grants person resulted successful an ROI of much than 6:1 to date.
Along with Stephens and different leaders successful the wellness sciences, Sukhatme recognized the request for enhanced probe infrastructure to enactment the increasing probe enterprise, and co-led operation and programming of the Health Sciences Research Building II, Emory’s largest probe gathering to date, scheduled to unfastened successful outpouring 2023.
He has worked to elevate enactment for innovation and entrepreneurship astatine Emory, often espousing the values that helium considers cardinal drivers for innovation: acceleration, boldness, connectivity, data-driven, engagement and inclusion, and fun.
Of course, COVID-19 was not portion of the strategical plan. “I did not expect a planetary pandemic occurring during my tenure oregon the ensuing tumultuous times, yet each and each 1 of you roseate to the situation with singular courageousness and resilience,” Sukhatme says successful a connection to the School of Medicine community. “For that I cannot convey you enough: I americium truthful grateful and proud.”
Despite the challenges, the School of Medicine probe endeavor continued to scope caller heights nether Sukhatme’s leadership, seeing important maturation successful the full fig of NIH-funded investigators and reaching a full of $588 cardinal successful probe backing successful FY22.
Transforming acquisition and focusing connected people
Emory School of Medicine’s acquisition programs are highly ranked and wide known for producing superior objective providers and outstanding scientists. Over the past year, Sukhatme has partnered with Executive Associate Dean J. William Eley, MD, MPH, and different stakeholders crossed the schoolhouse to motorboat an “education transformation” crossed each grade programs successful the SOM.
Incorporating caller contented and pedagogical methods with a absorption connected lifelong learning, the translation is intended to guarantee the School of Medicine's program is keeping up with the demands connected clinicians and scientists to lick the wellness challenges we look contiguous and successful the future.
Under Sukhatme’s leadership, the aesculapian school’s pupil assemblage has go progressively diverse. Thirty percent of Emory’s existent aesculapian pupil colonisation place arsenic historically underrepresented successful medicine (URiM). The first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategical plan for the School of Medicine was besides launched and is being implemented now. “I americium … thrilled with the advancement of our acquisition translation initiative, and the aboriginal interaction of our archetypal diversity, equity and inclusion strategical plan,” says Sukhatme.
He is passionate astir the unsocial and important relation physicians and scientists indispensable play successful addressing inequity. “The satellite we're surviving successful contiguous is becoming much and much fractured, but medicine has an unthinkable powerfulness to heal and to link — crossed race, crossed spiritual beliefs, crossed everything.”
One illustration of Sukhatme’s absorption connected innovation to marque bully wellness much accessible to each is the instauration of the Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine, an interdisciplinary portion wrong the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. The halfway was co-founded by Sukhatme and his wife, Vidula Sukhatme, MS, to beforehand research, acquisition and advocacy regarding the captious request to repurpose drugs and different treatments that are not being pursued owed to a deficiency of capable fiscal incentive.
Post deanship, Sukhatme plans to stay progressive connected the medicine full-time faculty, starring the Morningside Center and Clinics of the Future initiative. He volition besides prosecute successful teaching activities successful the School of Medicine and crossed Emory.
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