Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) spending bill. Darrell G. Kirch, MD, AAMC president and CEO, commended the committee for working in a bipartisan manner to advance legislation that provides continued support for the National Institutes of Health and other agencies vital to ensuring the nation’s health security.

The AAMC has launched Anatomy of an Applicant, a web feature that profiles medical school students—with commentary from their pre-health advisor and the admission officers who accepted them—on how they demonstrated the core competencies as an applicant. Resources include an introduction to the competencies and their definitions, along with a self-assessment tool. The website also describes the individual components of the medical school application, with resources to demonstrate how an applicant’s experiences inform admissions decisions. The materials are based on the AAMC’s 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students, which many medical schools have identified as important for entering medical students.

The AAMC has developed a global disclosure system to help centralize and streamline data collection and review of financial interests. Created with input from representatives of the academic medicine, medical journal, continuing medical education, government, and research communities, Convey is designed to improve the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and consistency of financial disclosure information and to simplify the disclosure collection process. Organizations interested in learning more can request a free demo.

Daniel D. Federman, MD, former dean for students and alumni and dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School (HMS), died on Sept. 6 at the age of 89. His career at Harvard, where he received his undergraduate and medical degrees, spanned more than 60 years. Dr. Federman is known for helping to transform medical education at HMS, and his groundbreaking work helped create the field of genetic endocrinology. He was a member of the AAMC’s Group on Educational Affairs, and in 2001, he received the AAMC’s Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education.

Vikas P. Sukhatme, MD, ScD, has been named dean of Emory University School of Medicine and chief academic officer of Emory Healthcare, effective Nov. 1. Sukhatme is currently chief academic officer and Harvard faculty dean for academic programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Victor J. Aresty Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.