Dear Members of the GUMC Community:
As we prepare for our first week of teaching remotely, teleworking, and fully realizing the new virtual paradigm of our campus, the contributions to Georgetown of each of you — and all of you together — are more important than ever before. Because of the expanding COVID-19 pandemic, we face exceptional and growing challenges, but as always we will meet them together as a community.
In the days ahead, I hope your operational transition is smooth, but I also anticipate that we’ll all have some bumps in the road. We have planned for some of the disruptions coming, and we will continue to adjust our support to keep pace with the evolving landscape and our ongoing work in this new environment.
During this time apart, I suspect most of us will have moments when we’ll feel disconnected, and additionally challenged by the events in the world around us. I hope that our focus on our collective work at the Medical Center will help unify us as a community ever more deeply.
As you know, online educational instruction begins tomorrow and will carry through to the end of the semester, including exams. I am grateful for the time so many of you have already spent in preparation for this continuity plan. We have included a summary of the resources available to support the on-line format.
Within the framework of public health and safety, we will continue approved essential research. Critical work and support of this mission remains fully operational including, but not limited to, the office of sponsored research, the IRB and animal facility. We also have included a link to the research guidelines communicated earlier this evening. We have included a link through which you may submit questions, which also will help us develop an expanded FAQ section on our COVID-19 website.
General and specialized patient care continues by our faculty members and some learners. Our colleagues at MedStar and beyond who are on the front lines of this outbreak deserve our utmost respect and our deepest gratitude. We certainly wish them the very best in the days, weeks and months ahead.
And of course, our staff and AAPs who provide the crucial support for all of these functions stand ready to support you.
Our absolute highest priority is the safety of our community and the safety of the public -- that is the foundation for everything that we do. Against that background, we will do all we can each day to support your work and our mission.
All my best,
Edward B. Healton, MD, MPH
Executive Vice President for Health Sciences
Executive Dean, Georgetown University School of Medicine
