Volume 25 • No. 8 • AUG.-SEPT. 2001
Implementation of physician order entry system continues
Hospital officials call bond rating "disappointing", but say financial picture is improving
PAMF places temporary freeze on new primary care patients
Gregory retires, duties split between COS, associate dean
Health insurance options announced for employees at Stanford, Packard hospitals
What do students have in common with practicing physicians - other than all doctors were once in training themselves? Fact File this month discovers that student involvement is just another advantage of working in an academic center. The discussion is with Elliott Wolfe, associate dean for clinical advising and professional development; Zera Murphy, director of student life; and Pat Cross, associate dean for preclinical advising.
F A C T S
1. The Office of Student Affairs supports several aspects of a medical student's life including academic and career advising, financial aid support services, facilitation and oversight of the major events - orientation and graduation - and more than 40 groups ranging from the professionally oriented Arbor Free Clinic and the American Medical Student Association to organizations such as the Stanford American Indian Medical Students or the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual Medical Group. Service groups include the "Pals" Program, which matches first- and second-year Stanford medical students with individual pediatric patients or their siblings, and Stanford Medicine in Local Education (SMILE), which sends medical students to local schools as lecturers on health topics.
2. Zera Murphy received her undergraduate training at UCLA. In 1972 she came to Stanford's Real Estate Department, where, as a certified property manager, she was promoted to director of lands management in 1985. After a running a startup research and development company in Malaysia for two years, Murphy returned to Stanford in 1994, where she served as manager of administration and corporate relations for the Asia/Pacific Research Center, and later as business manager for graduate affairs at the School of Medicine. In 1999 she was appointed director of student life.
3. Patricia C. Cross received her PhD in zoology from Tulane University in 1968. She served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania, where her focus was research on in vitro fertilization. She joined Stanford in 1976 as facilitator of laboratory design during the construction and opening of the Fairchild Building and was named lecturer in structural biology in 1977. Cross was promoted to associate professor in 1991 and full professor in 1998. She was named associate dean in 1992 and currently is responsible for preclinical advising and research, as well as serving as administrator of the Medical Student Scholars Program. Cross has won numerous teaching awards. She is the author of a widely regarded textbook, Cell and Tissue Ultrastructure: A Functional Perspective.
4. Elliott Wolfe graduated from UCSF School of Medicine in 1959. He started as a clinical instructor at Stanford in 1970, and since 1992 has directed "Preparation for Clinical Medicine (PCM) parts A and B," a course he continued to teach after being appointed associate dean in 1994. Wolfe was active in Stanford teaching activities during a 25-year career at Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers, where in 1987 he was appointed Stanford's assistant dean for medical education, serving as liaison between the Stanford teaching program and Kaiser clinical activities. Before leaving Kaiser, Wolfe served as director of regional staff education for Northern California. An internist, Wolfe has been honored at commencement several times with awards for clinical teaching. In 1998 he received the National Golden Apple for Teaching Excellence Award from the American Medical Student Association.
5. Members of the student affairs staff welcome opportunity for involvement by clinical physicians. Contact Wolfe at (650) 723-1536 or ewolfemd@stanford.edu, Cross at 723-4437 or pat.cross@stanford.edu, and Murphy at zera.murphy@stanford.edu or 498-4945 and 723-6951.
