The Schweitzer Fellows will spend the next year learning to effectively address the social factors that impact health and developing lifelong leadership skills. Schweitzer Fellows develop and implement service projects that address the root causes of health disparities in under-resourced communities, while also fulfilling their academic responsibilities.  

Health care professionals found themselves facing a whirlwind of unknowns at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Among the many unanswered questions was what effect shutdowns, social isolation, and the virus itself would have on children. Despite what some stated at the time, Kurt Newman, MD’78, and his colleagues at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., believed there was cause for concern.

David H. Adams, BS'79, MD'83 is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and cardiac surgeon-in-chief of the Mount Sinai Health System. Recognized by peers as one of the top mitral valve surgeons in the world, he established the Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center at the Mount Sinai Hospital, where he and his team have pioneered new techniques of valve repair while setting benchmarks for valve repair rates and quality.

Christine Park and Miranda Morris are recent recipients of the Barr-Spach Medicine and Engineering scholarship. This competitive scholarship is awarded annually to third-year Duke medical students who have been accepted into the MD-MEng dual degree program.

Blake Wilson, BSE’74, DSc, DEng, DMed (honoris causa), PhD’15, is director of the Duke Hearing Center and adjunct professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and consulting professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University.

Laura Schanberg, MD’84, HS’84-’92, is a professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and a faculty member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, is the William and Jane Shingleton Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and professor of pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine and executive director of the Duke Cancer Institute. He was previously a professor of oncology, pediatrics, and molecular biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine prior to becoming chair of the Hematology-Oncology Department and later Cancer Center director at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Diana McNeill, AB’78, MD’82, HS’87-’88, is a professor of medicine, endocrinology, metabolism, and nutrition and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine, and associate dean and inaugural director of Duke AHEAD (Academy of Health Professions Education & Academic Development), which has over 800 interprofessional members in Duke Health.

Americans heading to the beach, backyard barbecues or long family road trips this summer might consider packing masks, test kits and a little common sense along with their swim trunks and sunscreen.

A review of studies about the effect of food insecurity on digestive diseases found a dearth of information, even as diet can often be both a direct cause of and a solution for many gastrointestinal conditions.