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As is tradition, Bud Isaacson, MD, Professor of Medicine and Executive Dean of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, kicked off the State of the College Address by acknowledging the support of program leadership, faculty, staff and students.
Dr. Isaacson shared that 63% of all CCLCM graduates (N=534) have matched at hospitals historically ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report. Many of those students (N=86) have matched at Cleveland Clinic, and 30 CCLCM alumni are members of Cleveland Clinic’s professional staff.
The accreditation survey and site visit of the CWRU School of Medicine by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) took place in March 2025. We await the survey results, expected in October 2025.
New Class Updates
Christine Warren, MD, MS (’09), Associate Professor of Dermatology and Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, shared that CCLCM received a record 2,742 applications for the 32 available spots for this year’s incoming class. Our faculty and student volunteers interviewed 214 applicants.
Dr. Warren introduced the Class of 2030 and shared some facts about them. Of the members of the incoming class, five are from Ohio.
The top 10 reasons incoming students selected CCLCM are:
Student Engagement and Wellbeing
By intentionally designing a psychologically safe learning environment, the Student Engagement and Wellbeing (SeW) team supports students so that they feel welcomed and will thrive. Dr. Warren shared the tremendous progress of the SeW action groups, led by Monica Yepes-Rios, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Student Engagement and Wellbeing.
The SeW team also works closely with Mahwish Irfan, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Director of Wellbeing at CCLCM, and Jason Lambrese, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Wellbeing at CWRU, to help build and increase access to wellbeing and mental health resources. “Together we are developing a lunch and learn workshop series and wellbeing events to build community and students’ personal and professional growth and wellbeing,” said Dr. Warren.
If you are interested in joining one of the SeW action groups, email CCLCMDI@ccf.org.
Curricular Updates
Artificial intelligence Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs, shared how the program is integrating AI into the curriculum. He acknowledged the “educators’ dilemma,” which is balancing the tension of AI potentially harming cognitive skill development with preparing learners for the AI-Integrated future. Dr. Mehta described how CCLCM is integrating AI into the curriculum in a pedagogically sound manner including using AI as a virtual tutor (customized for each student), and for virtual discussions with simulated patients, clinical reasoning and research.
In addition, CCLCM is the only medical school program in the U.S. to integrate UWorld into the curriculum. An online learning resource to help students prepare for taking the USMLE, UWorld offers question banks that our faculty integrate into and align with weekly curriculum content. Thus far, student response to the enhanced curriculum is overwhelmingly positive.
Clinical curriculum Craig Nielsen, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for Clinical Education, described how CCLCM is using generative AI for faculty development — to practice giving feedback. He also shared that it is our policy that medical students are not permitted to use AI scribing tools or similar automated technology for writing their clinical notes during their clinical experiences/rotations. The practice of note writing is considered an integral part of the learning process as it aids in developing clinical reasoning skills, synthesizing patient information and formulating differential diagnoses, he said.
Research curriculum Trine Jorgensen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine, described the various thesis year options, which include Cleveland Clinic; Case Western Reserve University and affiliated institutions; NIH Medical Research Scholars program; Sarnoff CV Research Foundation Fellowship; Fulbright Fellowship; Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (OIST) Fellowship; and a pilot program with CCLCM alumni Aaron Viny, MD, MS (’09), Rebecca Ganetzky, MD (’10), and Kalil Abdullah, MD (’12).
The first CCLCM student to be awarded an OIST fellowship, Maria Gorenflo (’26), completed her research in July 2025. Read about Gorenflo’s experience. Akua Abrah (’27), earned a Fulbright Fellowship and is travelling to Ghana for nine months to conduct a screening study of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, a common cause of infant mortality. Read this profile piece on Abrah. Finally, Eno-obong (Blessing) Udoh (‘27) will be participating in the pilot program with CCLCM alumni, conducting research to understand the role of germline STAG2 mutations in myeloid neoplasms with Dr. Aaron Viny at Columbia University, New York.
Presentation of awards
The program ended with the presentation of the CCLCM Legacy Awards, each of which acknowledged the recipient’s “outstanding dedication to medical education at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.”
Awards were presented to:
The mission of CCLCM is to educate students to become physician investigators who advance biomedical research, deliver exceptional clinical care and promote health. With deep gratitude, we thank our faculty, administrative staff, students and donors for their many contributions to our mission and for making CCLCM an exceptional place for our students and faculty to thrive.
