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Dear Colleague: 

I hope you were able to join me last Thursday morning for my town hall meeting. I expect to hold a recurring series of town halls to discuss matters of importance for our school.

I was excited that our first one was a conversation with Vineet Chopra, MD, MSc, interim Executive Vice Dean overseeing clinical affairs, quality, and research, and Shanta Zimmer, MD, Executive Vice Dean for Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå. These dynamic leaders have great vision and determination to help us become Top 10 in 10 years.

A recording of this session is available on the for anyone who might have missed the discussion or wishes to revisit anything we talked about.

I’d like to thank the audience for submitting questions and sharing their time with us. At the end of the town hall there was a QR code displayed . I encourage you to let us know what topics you’d be interested in hearing about during future town halls.

Funds Flow
Since fall 2023, CU School of Medicine and University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital leaders have been working on a major project to evaluate how we collect and spend money for the care we provide and how it is distributed by the hospital to the clinical departments of our school on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The process is called Funds Flow, and it’s critical to our future success.

We are fortunate to have strong demand for the outstanding care we provide to our patients on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Where other academic health centers across the country have struggled with budget cuts and competitive pressures, we have continued to grow.

But for all our successes, times are rapidly changing, so we have engaged in a comprehensive analysis of how we are putting our resources to work to prepare for our future. Based on this deep dive, we are updating our budget process to strengthen our partnership, bring clarity to our spending, and better align our interests.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge this is a significant change—and like any culture shift, it raises several questions. I consider this change a primary responsibility of leadership—both at the school level and the department level. To be ready for the future, we must evolve how we support our mission and properly steward our resources.

At its core, this Funds Flow model is designed to promote transparency, consistency, and fairness across our clinical enterprise. It ensures that every dollar—whether it comes from clinical revenue or hospital support—is aligned with the work we value most: delivering excellent patient outcomes, advancing health care through research, and educating the next generation of clinicians.

This strategic realignment aims to address fundamental questions: Are we investing where we see the greatest impact? Are we creating incentives that help our faculty to succeed? How do we improve accountability? Are we creating an environment that encourages high performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and better care for our patients?

In the future, thanks to this process, we will be more efficient in budget discussions because we are adopting transparent, mutually understood rules for the support our clinical departments receive from University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital. By decreasing the friction in these conversations, we can focus on what matters most: taking care of our patients and training our medical students, residents, and fellows, plus offering cutting-edge clinical trials.

We are confident this new process will align our strategies to invest in programs that will improve our operations and the care we give. Rather than a “me-first” philosophy for each department, we will emphasize “we-first” and work for mutually beneficial goals.

Here are some key principles to know about our Funds Flow model:

• University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital’s support to the school will be the same or more than it has been in historical years.
• Support levels are benchmarked higher than almost all other academic medical centers.
• Faculty compensation will not be impacted by Funds Flow. Department leadership will continue to manage faculty members and set their compensation based on market trends or related considerations.
• Support will be available from University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå Hospital for new recruits while they ramp up their practice.
• Our interdepartmental and partnership strategies will be aligned to ensure that all boats rise through better data, transparency, accountability, and well-placed rewards.

This first round of work has focused on clinical funds flow, and it takes effect when the new budget year begins on July 1. It’s important to also mention that this new model will allow us to understand what works and what doesn’t so that we can continue to refine things over the year. Next, we will be conducting a similar review of funds flow for Graduate Medical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå and our research enterprise.

I would like to thank our department leaders and their finance teams for their engagement in this process. Charting our future has required extensive extra work while managing our day-to-day concerns. That work is worth it so that we guarantee a brighter future for all of us.

Recent Publications
Joyce. S. Lee, MD, Professor of Medicine, is author of an , “Progress through Persistence – Turning the Page in Pulmonary Fibrosis Clinical Trials,” published May 19 by The New England Journal of Medicine.

Christine Conageski, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is corresponding author of an , “Clinical Validation of a Vaginal Cervical Cancer Screening Self-Collection Method for At-Home Use,” published May 19 by JAMA Network Open.

Michelle Knees, DO, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a co-author of an , “Training Interrupted – The Hidden Costs of Secure Messaging on Medical Trainee Learning,” published May 19 by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Robert Murphy, PhD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, is a co-author of an , “Technical recommendations for analyzing oxylipins by liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry,” published May 20 by Science Signaling.

Kaleb S. Abbott, OD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, is corresponding author of a , “Cochrane corner: lubricating drops for contact lens discomfort in adults,” published May 21 in Eye. Co-authors are Darren G. Gregory, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, and Su-Hsun Liu, MD, PhD, MPH, Assistant Research Professor of Ophthalmology.

Emily Lines, MD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, is corresponding author of “The Inbox Clinician: An Agile Member of the Care Team,” the cover of the May/June issue of FPM.

Faculty Updates
Aimee Gardner, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, and Director of the Academy of Medical Educators, has been President of the Association for Surgical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå for 2025-2026. The Association for Surgical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå is a global community of surgeons and educators leading innovation, scholarship, and professional development in surgical education.

Stephen Daniels, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of Pediatrics, was honored with the CCTSI Clinical Faculty Scholars Program’s 2025 Allan Prochazka Master Mentoring Award. For nearly two decades on campus, Dr. Daniels has been a driving force in mentoring and sponsoring the research careers of early-career faculty. 

Help Wanted
The Office of Undergraduate Medical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå is seeking candidates for the Assistant Dean of Admissions. Reporting to Jeffrey SooHoo, MD, MBA, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, the Assistant Dean will lead the School of Medicine’s undergraduate medical education admissions efforts. Dr. Soohoo, the current Assistant Dean of Admissions, is assuming additional leadership responsibilities in the Office of Student Life, which oversees student affairs and admissions, as Brian Dwinnell, MD, Associate Dean for Student Life, decreases his effort there. Suzanne Brandenburg, MD, Associate Dean of Medical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå, will chair the search committee. The includes details about the position and application instructions.

Faculty Events
Benjamin S. Vipler, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, will lead a workshop, “Turning a Rant into Scholarship,” on Thursday, June 5, at 4 p.m. at the Benson Faculty Club. The workshop will review strategies for developing high-impact medical education manuscripts and scholarship. Register at the Faculty Development Workshops .

The Academy of Medical Educators (AME) is hosting its quarterly networking event on Thursday, June 5, at 5 p.m. at the Benson Faculty Club. All AME members are welcome. . Learn more about the Academy of Medical Educators on its .

Class of 2025 Graduates
Due to the Memorial Day holiday, this is my first message to celebrate our Class of 2025 graduates, who received their diplomas on May 19.

What a terrific day!

Our Class of 2025 is a class of many firsts: 

The first class to complete the entirely redesigned curriculum. They successfully completed their trek through our medical school and found themselves at the summit. This class had the highest Step 1 pass rates and Step 2 scores we have ever had. On top of that, our graduates matched with excellent residency programs across the country.

It’s also the first class to include a cohort of students who their four-year medical education at the Fort Collins Regional Medical Campus at Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå State University.

And it was my first time presiding over the ceremonies as your Dean. What an honor! It was an extraordinary privilege to hand diplomas to every graduate crossing the stage.

We were treated to excellent speeches, too. India Bonner, MD ’25, was selected by her classmates as their class speaker. She explained that training involves more than texts and techniques. It’s about showing how you care for others.

Keynote speaker Mona Hanna, MD, MPH, Associate Dean for Public Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, exhorted the class to use their knowledge and skills for the common good. 

“You are now the guardians of health and justice,” she said. “You didn’t just earn an MD. You inherited a megaphone and a mission. Use it to sit with a patient in pain and to stand with a community in crisis. Use it to change what happens in the clinic and what happens in the capital. Use it to prescribe, not just for disease, but for health.”

You can read more about the events and members of the class in this article in the School of Medicine and on this dedicated to our graduation events.While the clouds in the sky kept the temperature cool during the ceremony, the day was radiant with the promise of our graduating class. I told them to embrace the changes coming into their lives: “Now you will be called ‘doctor.’ This transition will not be easy all the time, but do not be afraid of this change. Be courageous. Go out and change the world.”

Have a good week,

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå School of Medicine