A message from the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine
72 E. Concord St.
Boston, MA 02118

Support MED

September 2021

As I write this, our fourth-year medical students are doing sub-internships, and our third-years are completing their first clinical clerkships. Second-year medical students, arriving back in the classroom for their fall semester, met many of their classmates in person for the first time at their orientation ice cream social, because last year they were taught doctoring in groups of eight students or on Zoom to decrease the risk of infection. It is wonderful to have them all in class together for the first time. Our new medical student class arrived on August 2 and our graduate students on August 31.

Our students have learned about the importance of health disparities for decades, but now, amplified by COVID-19, so many more Americans are aware. The past year has highlighted the value of a BUSM education for the next generation of physicians and scientists working on the front lines of medicine. We could not have rallied this way without your help—and cannot thank you enough.

Student financial aid continues to be our number one priority. Last year, we provided $8.5 million in student aid; nevertheless, the median debt was $220,000. Please consider giving generously to help our future physicians graduate with manageable debt. Scholarship aid also helps us to recruit the most talented and diverse student body. Cost is often a deciding factor for students, and many of our peer institutions have more endowed scholarships than we do.

Staying competitive also requires modern facilities. We are grateful to have received generous gifts to renovate our Gross Anatomy Lab and our Clinical Skills and Simulation Center. Our newest renovation is our Team-Based Learning Lab. We have been using this collaborative, active learning approach for several years.

The larger classroom will allow the entire class to participate at once with state-of-the-art technology and workspaces. We welcome any support for this renovation, which will facilitate our students’ mastery of the enormous amounts of material they need to learn to be physicians or scientists.

We are working to enrich our students’ academic experience with research and global health experiences, electives, and wellness activities. The pandemic has highlighted how critical these enhancement programs are. Would you consider supporting them?

Faculty and students have contributed more than 1,000 COVID-19 papers and databases since the start of the pandemic. For example, Assistant Professor Pria Anand found that neurologic complications were common even in patients with moderate COVID-19 infections. Other areas of study have received a great deal of attention as well. Associate Professor Thor Stein’s found a connection between contact sports, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and sleep disorders.

Thank you again for your gifts at any level. We cannot overstate the value of your support for the school, our students, and our faculty—and for helping to bring expert frontline medicine to our Boston communities and the world.

With thanks,

Karen Antman, MD
Dean, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Provost, Boston University Medical Campus

PS: You can make a gift at any time at bu.edu/busmgiving. Thank you again.