Message from the Chair
Message from Daniel Edmundowicz, MS, MD, FACC
Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine
Florence P. Bernheimer Distinguished Service Professor in Medicine and Cardiology
Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University
Chief of Service, Temple University Hospital
The Department of Medicine is driven by our mission of outstanding clinical care, scholarship, and mentorship. Nearly 200 faculty members work closely with our medical students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, and clinical teams to fulfill these goals. Together, we advance medicine and improve lives.
We are especially motivated to help society’s most vulnerable members, including many local residents. This shared purpose creates strong bonds within our department.
Caring for one another is also paramount. More than ever, we’re enhancing wellness and life/work balance, and helping our faculty define and achieve their professional development goals.
I’m proud to note that leadership across Temple Health shares these values, enabling us to attract top-notch faculty who share our enthusiasm and dedication to excellence.
Research Advances
The department continues to build on its strong history of research. Today, we are particularly focused on translational research, in partnership with our basic science colleagues. Our advanced heart failure group works with the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine to discover new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of disease with a focus towards myocardial infarction and heart failure.
And we are matching our clinicians with more potential research projects – nationally and internationally – by using database algorithms to identify eligible patient panels within our existing patient populations. (Patient data is de-identified to protect privacy.)
Scientific & Clinical Training
The department offers medical students, residents, and fellows exceptional opportunities in research, as well. These trainees conduct research with their faculty mentors, learn how to organize their findings in the scientific format, and present and defend their work at regional and national meetings. These activities are part of our core academic mission, and distinguish us from other health systems.
An annual highlight is the Sol Sherry Research Symposium, a full day of research presentations by the department’s faculty, medical residents, post-graduate fellows, and medical students. Featuring 70-plus presentations, with awards for the best, this longstanding event connects people through their academic and scientific interests.
Clinical Leadership & Growth
Our clinical programs provide world-class care to people in our region and beyond. They encompass a wide range of specialties, from gastroenterology to rheumatology, general internal medicine to cardiology, hepatology to nephrology, among others all of which also serve as dynamic training opportunities for our residents and fellows.
The cardiology section has the country’s second-largest referral program for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which chronic thrombus in the pulmonary arteries causes pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure. This pioneering program is one of very few offering both highly specialized surgical treatment and less-invasive approaches such as balloon angioplasty of the pulmonary arteries.
Our residents care for patients in the nation’s largest lung-transplant program and we are expanding our partnership with Temple’s solid-organ transplant program, as well. Our physicians work closely with the transplant surgeons to enable more efficient patient evaluations. As a result, wait times for transplants have improved.
We are taking, head on, the impact of social determinants of health – from food insecurity to unstable housing to lack of transportation – that can profoundly affect health. For example, our Hospitalist managed post-discharge clinic connects patients with social workers and community health workers to our most vulnerable patients to address these challenges. Additionally, our growing Substance Use Disorder Program is helping greater numbers of patients overcome addiction.
Thank you for your interest in the Department of Medicine. I encourage you to explore our website to learn more about the the mission-focused services we provide.