In my role as vice president and dean, I have the privilege of hearing the stories and experiences of many different people—the medical student, for example, who overcame personal challenges or followed a nontraditional path to pursue their dream of becoming a doctor. The researcher who has spent their entire career dedicated to understanding a specific disease. The patient whose health has improved through the skill, expertise, and compassion of our care teams.
Stories help form the core of our experiences. They are the narrative structures we use to shape our understanding of the world and define who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. They’re the threads that connect us and the foundation from which we’re able to find common ground and achieve common goals.
While much of medicine—from biomedical research to medical education to patient care—is driven by data and facts, stories also play a key role. Data help explain the who, what, where, and when. Stories help explain the how and why.
In this issue, you will read about Carver College of Medicine investigators who took inspiration from the culinary arts in developing foams and other gas-entrapping materials that could help improve treatments for specific cancers. You will discover neuroscience research at Iowa on how sleep deprivation can cause distinct changes in different brain regions that affect behavior, emotion, and memory. You’ll learn how UI Health Care orthopedic surgeons and other specialists work together to treat spinal stenosis and other painful back problems among older adults. And you’ll read the remarkable story of the Eilers family, whose newest member, Evelyn, was the tiniest premature infant born in the United States.
These are examples of the types of stories we feature in Medicine Iowa—stories that highlight how UI Health Care impacts medicine in ways that can change perspectives and improve people’s lives. That’s what good stories do. By showing us the lives of others, they also teach us a lot about ourselves and the world we live in.
Denise Jamieson, MD, MPH
University of Iowa Vice President for Medical Affairs
and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean, Carver College of Medicine
