The UofSC School of Medicine Columbia will hold a Virtual Town Hall for faculty and staff on Wednesday, April 22 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., to share updates on our response and future planning related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Virtual Town Hall will be held via WebEx meeting.

During this town hall, we will hear updates from our educational, research, and administrative leaders about how the School of Medicine is adapting our processes to continue our work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• J.T. Thornhill, M.D., associate dean for medical education, will share information about the Virtual SOM Commencement Ceremony planned for Friday, May 8.
• Researchers will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on research, including new opportunities to participate in COVID-19 related research.
• Helmut Albrecht, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine chair, will share some ways in which our school is participating in the campus and statewide planning for the response to the outbreak, as well as modeling scenarios that could occur later this year.
• Jeff Perkins, associate vice president for finance and business and medical business affairs, will briefly summarize the ongoing campus planning related to these events.

Blackboard Collaborate virtual town halls also will  be held over the next two weeks for medical students and graduate students. These town halls will focus on issues related to their educational programs.

Participants will have an opportunity to submit questions for discussion. Questions can be submitted in advance via the form included on this page or during the event via the Q&A icon in WebEx. Due to time constraints, the presenters may not be able to answer all questions during the town hall. A Q&A document will be posted to the SOM website following the town hall meeting that will address all questions.

All faculty and staff will receive an Outlook invitation for the town hall. You can access the event at the scheduled time via the WebEx link included in the invitation. Please note that you will be required to enter the event password, which also will be included in the Outlook invitation. For increased security, WebEX will automatically lock the meeting 10 minutes after the meeting starts. This will prevent unwanted people from joining this meeting. So, if you would like to participate in the Virtual Town Hall, please login by 5:40 p.m. to avoid being locked out.