FISCAL YEAR 2023 UPDATECARLE ILLINOISCOLLEGE OF MEDICINECELEBRATING THE IMPACT OF
YOUR GENEROSITY

Dear friends,
On behalf of everyone at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, thank you for helping make FY 2023 a year of
unprecedented success and growth at the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine.
For the second year in a row, our graduates are now resident physicians at top programs and hospitals
around the country in almost every specialty, poised to make a meaningful impact as physician-innovators
for their patients and communities. Our current students continue to excel, earning regional, national,and even global honors for their research in cancer, tissue engineering, mixed reality and AI, radiology,
neurology/neurosurgery, and innovation. Most recently, we welcomed 64 students from top schools aroundthe country into the Class of 2027 who enrich our student body with their impressive credentials and drive.
Simultaneously, our college has formed promising national and international partnerships that will create
opportunities to launch new student exchange externships, establish research collaborations, and brand CI
MED as an international leader in engineering-based medical education.
Of course, only through your generous support can we continue to accomplish great things. Thank you forpartnering with us as, together, we innovate, engineer, and build the future of medicine.
With gratitude,Dean, Carle Illinois College of Medicine

FY 2023

BY THE NUMBERS
Thanks to your support during this past fiscal year, the Carle Illinois College ofMedicine continues to be transformed, resulting in:$12,758,513

DOLLARS RAISED119

FIRST-TIME DONORS

259

GIFTS BETWEEN$1 AND $100

$3,390,610

NEW PLANNED GIVINGCOMMITMENTS

FY 2023

HIGHLIGHTS
Turning Grief into Action
The Aarush M. Patel Foundation was born out of tragedy, but
his parents channeled their heartbreak into support for families
experiencing their darkest hours by funding innovative research inwomen’s health and maternal-fetal medicine. The Foundation helped
support CI MED students Bhargavee Gnanasambandam and Nellie
Haug’s capstone project, Cervicare, which aims to address disparities
in cervical cancer screening with a new rapid screening test. This test
will lower the cost of pap smears, the most widely used test to detect
cervical cancer, but one which can be prohibitively expensive forfree clinics to offer—and therefore for low-income women to access.
In addition to the test, they are analyzing NIH data to explore therelationship between social/structural determinants of health andcervical cancer to better pinpoint where barriers exist.

Cozad Venture Challenge Inspires
Medical Innovation
A team of Carle Illinois College of Medicine physician innovators
were selected as finalists in the Cozad New Venture Challenge, asemester-long program designed to encourage students to develop
their startup ideas into profitable businesses. The new healthcare
track, created in collaboration with CI MED and partially sponsored bydonors Peter Fox and the Henry Dale & Betty Smith Family, featured
an elevator pitch from Beacon, founded by CI MED students AnantNaik, Emily Smith, and Al Smith, about their proposed new treatment
for patients with glioblastomas, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
These finalists will now have access to top-notch mentors andguidance relating to commercializing medical technologies to assist
them in forming a company around their ideas.

CONTINUEAlbert C. England III Professorship of Infectious Diseases

Your continued support ensures theCarle Illinois College of Medicine
remains a place where progress andinnovation can flourish. Find yourpassion and help us dream evenbigger!

Inspired by his grandfather and his father, both physicians andlife-long learners, Dr. Albert (Terry) England, III became intriguedby medicine at a young age. After retiring from almost 40 years at
Christie Clinic, he and his wife Barbara chose to honor his family
legacy; the legacies of his medical school professors, Dennis G.
Maki at UW-Madison and David W. Fraser at CDC Atlanta; as wellas his colleagues and patients by creating the Albert C. England III
Professorship of Infectious Diseases Fund. It is his privilege to support
infectious disease education, patient care, and research.

YOUR SUPPORTThe Dr. Don A. Fischer Memorial Surgical Scholarship Fund

SCAN TO SEE PRIORITIES

Dr. Don A. Fischer was a loving father and husband, a well-respectedsurgeon at both Christie Clinic and Decatur Memorial Hospital, aloyal Illini, and one of the earliest advocates for Carle Illinois College ofMedicine. One of his greatest joys in life was seeing the enthusiasmand pride of new physicians as they graduated from medical
school and moved forward in their careers, so to honor his memory,
his family established the Dr. Don A. Fischer Memorial Surgical
Scholarship Fund to provide financial support for CI MED students
who wish to follow in Dr. Fischer’s footsteps and become surgeons.