Division of the Biological Sciences
Response to Hurricane Katrina
updated September 7th, 2005
The Biological Sciences Division is working closely with the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago Hospitals, and appropriate national organizations to respond to patient care needs as well as the potential need to temporarily and/or permanently relocate student trainees displaced from home institutions by Hurricane Katrina.
Patient Care
The federal government is now coordinating a national response through the Department of Health and Human Services. There are two primary aspects to the patient care effort. The first is a request by HHS for US medical schools to designate an internal response team to assist with evaluation, consultation and possible evacuation of high-acuity patients to academic medical centers, which we have done. The second is a call to academic medical centers to signal their willingness to assemble teams of volunteer medical support personnel to aid in an on-site relief effort, which we have also done. To facilitate enterprise-wide coordination of this effort, BSD and the University of Chicago Hospitals has created a central registry of interested UCH staff, BSD staff and BSD physician faculty volunteers. This list will be managed by the joint UCH-BSD Disaster Relief Task Force, which will serve as the central point of contact for HHS as well as other approved volunteer organizations and area health-care providers.
Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education
Undergraduate students who attended college in areas affected by the natural disaster should send an application, which can be accessed at http://phoenix.uchicago.edu/sal, by Monday, Sept. 12. The application fee will be waived and decisions about admissions are expected by Friday, Sept. 16. Call (773) 702-8650 for more information.
Pritzker School of Medicine
Undergraduate Medical Education/MSTP
The Tulane University School of Medicine has relocated to Houston, Texas, using facilities of the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Tulane medical students will continue their education in one of these two locations beginning September 26, 2005. Additional information may be found at www.tulane.edu/students. The Louisiana State University School of Medicine at New Orleans has relocated classes to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA. LSU-NO medical students will begin classes there on September 26, 2005. The American Association of Medical Colleges has asked all medical schools to communicate directly with the leadership of the Tulane or LSU-NO schools of medicine about any possible transfer requests. Should you wish to explore a transfer to the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, please begin by making contact with your home school administration who should then contact us indicating their support of your transfer.
Graduate Medical Education
ACGME has posted on its Web site (www.acgme.org) guidelines for program directors, residents, and fellows who are working to recover from the hurricane's impact on graduate medical education. ACGME is requiring that program directors in the disaster areas must approve all transfers. No program can accept a resident/fellow unless approved by the program director and DIO from the program/institution in the disaster area. Residents who have been displaced by the hurricane need to contact their program director or their institution's GME dean or director to learn what arrangements are being made to continue their program. Agreements of appointment are effective until they residents have permission to transfer to another program. ACGME requires that any transfer be approved by the program director or a designated institutional official. Residents or program directors having difficulty reaching each other should e-mail residents@aamc.org. The AAMC is monitoring this e-mail box and facilitating connections between residents and training programs.
Graduate Programs
The Division’s graduate programs are prepared to evaluate transfer requests for temporary (short-term) placement on a case-by-case basis only with full approval from the authorized program official at the host institution. First- and second-year students will have access to graduate courses, and upper-level students will be considered for transition of thesis lab projects with additional approvals from principal investigators at the host institution and at Chicago. Logistics regarding credit for courses and tuition will be worked out with the students’ home institution once operations have stabilized. Interested students should contact the BSD Office of Graduate Affairs (773) 702 5853 (pshah@bsd.uchicago.edu) for further information.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Postdoctoral Fellows who are interested in short-term or long-term transfer opportunities will need approval first from their host laboratory principal investigator and secondly from the potential University of Chicago BSD principal investigator. Following these approvals, the University of Chicago principal investigator will initiate the standard postdoctoral appointment procedure through the BSD Office of Academic Affairs.