Dear Friends,
I hope that you are enjoying a green, warm, and carefree spring. For your reading pleasure, please also enjoy the spring issue of In The Loupes, the Department of Surgery’s regular newsletter. This issue features work which we are doing across all of our missions — educational, research, and clinical. It also includes a career profile of one of my favorite people, Dr. Mark Orringer.
There is a tremendous amount of information contained in cross-sectional images, such as CT scans, which are now ubiquitous in the practice of medicine. Through an ingenious and unique effort, surgeons in the Department of Surgery are trying to squeeze every bit of the “juice” from this information. The accompanying article describes a unique method by which this morphometric information can be used to predict clinical outcomes, and perhaps to improve operative results in prospective surgical patients.
You will also find an article regarding educational outreach by Drs. Jonathan Finks and Lisa Newman in the Department of Surgery to Detroit’s Cass Technical High School. This is part of a larger effort to increase interest in medical careers in underserved areas. I am incredibly proud that the Department of Surgery is playing a key role in this initiative.
The Medical School has recognized its best educators by the foundation of the League of Educational Excellence. Six faculty members from the Department of Surgery were recently elected to membership. They represent the very best in this department and this Medical School.
Finally, the remarkable career of Dr. Orringer is celebrated. Dr. Orringer transformed the care of patients with esophageal disease, particularly those with esophageal carcinoma. His development and perfection of transhiatal esophagectomy has had an international impact, and his personal experience with the operation is unparalleled. For all of our past, present, and future patients, join me in saying thank you to Mark.
Michael W. Mulholland, M.D., Ph.D.
Frederick A. Coller Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Chair, Department of Surgery
University of Michigan
