Dear RSOM Faculty, Staff and Learners,
This month marks my three-year anniversary as your dean. I would like to take this opportunity to pause and reflect on what we have done together over the past three years. Before anything else, I want to thank you. Every day on my way to the office I pass by the rock garden pictured below, which may have been designed for a different purpose but perfectly encapsulates how I feel about working with you:
Serving as your dean is the privilege of a lifetime and the capstone of my academic career. The RSOM is a special place that’s on an upward trajectory, and I am more optimistic than ever about our future. In the research arena, we continue to make “textbook” discoveries that impact biomedicine and patient care. Our NIH funding increased 27% from the previous year, and research expenditures increased 13%. Among public medical schools, the RSOM is ranked #1 in New York State and #42 nationally. Under the leadership of Vice Dean for Research Dr. Sue Hedayati, we are strengthening the infrastructure for clinical research. Later this fall we will open a new clinical trials unit at SBM’s Advanced Specialty Care in Commack, so patients can receive multispecialty care and enroll in clinical trials all at one location.
Our renowned educational programs are in high demand. Unlike other universities that are experiencing declining enrollment, enrollment at Stony Brook University surpassed 27,000 for the first time in its history. This growth extended to the RSOM, where 141 students matriculated this year, and for the first time in recent memory we did not take any students from the waitlist. Vice Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education Dr. Drew Wackett is leading a massive preparation for LCME reaccreditation in 2027. Thank you to all the faculty, staff and students who are engaged in this undertaking. In response to student input, we have improved career advising, renovated study spaces, and developed new courses in the business of medicine and technology and medicine. As a result of these enhancements, our graduating students reported overall satisfaction of 98%, the highest in recent memory and well above the national average. Our residency and fellowship programs also continue to thrive. Under the leadership of Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education Dr. Jonathan Buscaglia, we launched new fellowships in pediatric emergency medicine and addiction medicine, appointed new program directors, and expanded curricula. Our continuing medical education program received a six-year Accreditation with Commendation from the ACCME due to the efforts of Associate Dean Dr. Dorothy Lane and her office. I am also proud of the strides we have made to strengthen the important relationship with the Northport VA, including the appointment of Dr. Hussein Foda as Associate Dean for VA Affairs. We remain as committed as ever to educating an inclusive community of physicians and scientists, and I am indebted to the many individuals who run our important diversity and pathway programs.
The RSOM’s basic science departments are engines of biomedical research and graduate education. As a laboratory-based physician-scientist myself, supporting the basic sciences has been a high priority. I am absolutely committed to ensuring that medical education at the RSOM remains firmly rooted in science and the scientific method. I am proud of the investments that we have made in the basic sciences, from upgrading the cryoelectron microscope, to recruiting new faculty, to renovating laboratory space. These investments are already paying off in new research funding, high-impact publications, national recognition, and new NIH training grants.
Our clinical enterprise is vast comprising four hospitals, the faculty practice plan, community providers, and more than 200 ambulatory sites. We staff SBUH, the only public safety-net hospital in Suffolk County with a population of 1.5 million. At the same time, as the only academic health system in greater Long Island, we conduct cutting-edge research and educate the next generation of physicians. The glue that binds these two missions is our collective commitment to making new discoveries that will translate into improvements in patient care and delivering them to all residents in our region. Examples include our mobile stroke and mammography units, neurointerventional radiology to treat subdural hematomas, development of a novel non-opioid treatment for pain, PET imaging to guide personalized treatment of depression and schizophrenia, and AI-assisted evaluation of coronary artery disease. Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs Dr. Todd Griffin is managing the expansion of our ambulatory practice, incorporation of SBCM and MHL faculty into our academic departments, and transformation of CPMP into an integrated academic faculty practice, all of which are necessary to provide seamless patient-centered care across our region.
I particularly want to thank Executive Vice President for Stony Brook Medicine Dr. Bill Wertheim for his mentorship and unwavering support of the RSOM. His wisdom, expertise and advocacy have been essential for the school’s success. Although I report to Dr. Wertheim, I work for you, the faculty, staff and learners of the RSOM. I very much believe in servant leadership, and I live vicariously through your achievements. And, what achievements they have been! From election to the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Inventors to designation as a Milestones in Microbiology Site, your accomplishments fill me with pride, and I hope you derive the same sense of fulfillment from them as I do. I would like to thank Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs Dr. Stella Tsirka and Associate Dean for Clinical Faculty Development Dr. Susan Lane for streamlining our appointments and promotions process, creating a new leadership academy, and recognizing our faculty. I also want to thank Vice Dean for Finance and Administration John Riley for ensuring that we have the resources and administrative support needed to be successful. Going forward, we are focused on implementing the strategic plan that we co-created in 2023, elevating the stature of the RSOM, conducting groundbreaking research, innovating in medical education, bringing the benefits of academic medicine to patients in our region, and ensuring that the opportunities at the RSOM are available to everyone in our community.
In closing, I want to reiterate my deep gratitude for your support, contributions, and dedication to the RSOM over the last three years. I am excited about our future and look forward to partnering with you over the years ahead to fulfill our individual and collective aspirations.
Best wishes,
Peter Igarashi, MD
Knapp Endowed Dean
Renaissance School of Medicine