Chair’s Message

Welcome to the 2021 Annual Report of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and life as we knew it changed. This disease impacted all aspects of life, from the healthcare we provided our community to how we continued our pursuits of discovery and education. Throughout this time, we remained focused on our missions and our patients, faculty, and staff. Something as infinitesimally small as a viral particle has killed millions of people and turned our world around. Ultimately the virus was no match for the resiliency of the human spirit.

During this past year, we experienced the realization of a modern-day miracle. Consider for a moment the brilliance of engineering: a lipid sphere containing a molecule of RNA can be injected into the arm muscle resulting in our body’s cells manufacturing a viral-specific protein that alerts the immune system to fight off the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which can put a stop to the pandemic. Years of research to understand the chemistry, biology, and medicine of RNA viruses and the immune system have allowed human ingenuity to reach what is now considered the “Diamond Age” of medicine.

Academic medical centers and departments, such as ours, have the responsibility to face the challenges of our time. Among our missions is to confront sickness, addiction, aging, and at the same time, never lose sight to embrace inclusivity, diversity, and humanism. In this report, we will explore how the Department of Medicine is Emerging Stronger despite the extraordinary challenges we face.

As Chairman, I am proud of how the Department of Medicine showed tenacity and compassion and led the way in finding solutions to the current problems. I hope this report gives you a better understanding of how special it is to be a faculty member of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

All my best,

Roy E. Weiss, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Medicine Chair, Department of Medicine Kathleen & Stanley Glaser Distinguished Chair in Medicine Rabbi Morris I. Esformes Endowed Chair in Medicine and Endocrinology University of Miami Miller School of Medicine