Letter from the Dean

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE OF COVID

The last several months have been unprecedented in the school’s history. We have transformed our educational programs, adapted to new models of outpatient care and shifted institutional policies to keep everyone safe. Our education leaders, teachers, GME leaders and all of their support staff in New Orleans and at our regional campuses in Baton Rouge and Lafayette have demonstrated remarkable resilience and dedication to the missions of our school. Researchers have quickly seized the moment to design protocols with experimental medications and convalescent serum, to develop tests, to study COVID pathology and to learn about its pathogenesis. They all deserve our thanks. No one deserves more admiration and gratitude, however, than the clinicians who serve on the front lines of patient care in our partnering hospitals. These physicians put themselves and their families in harm’s way to provide exemplary care for our patients.

The sheer magnitude of our response to the COVID crisis was remarkable. The selflessness of our doctors has been humbling. In Camus’ The Plague, Dr. Bernard Rieux relentlessly cared for his sick and dying patients. He concluded that the only ways we can fight a plague are with human decency and by just doing our job. Our faculty combine their exceptional medical skill with humanism and decency. They put themselves at risk every day and do their job. We do not know what the future will bring. What we do know is that our doctors will meet whatever challenges we face.

Steve Nelson, MD, CM, FCCP Dean of LSUHNO School of Medicine