The physicians portrayed here would be the first to say that they serve as part of a team and could not do the work they do without the assistance of other health care providers who practice alongside them. One such provider is Jaclyn Funk, a vascular technologist with UBMD Surgery, pictured here on the surgical intensive care unit at Buffalo General Medical Center caring for a COVID-19 patient. Photo courtesy of Kaleida Health/Joe Cascio.
A Photo Tribute to Our Frontline Workers
This Is What We Do
Only history will tell where COVID-19 ultimately ranks in comparison with other pandemics, but for UB faculty physicians and medical residents working on the frontlines of the crisis, the pandemic is an epic challenge, both in its acute and chronic phases.
More than 500 faculty physicians and 700 medical residents from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences provide care to patients in UB’s affiliated teaching hospitals throughout Western New York.
Many of these physicians are treating COVID-19 patients in work conditions unlike any they have experienced before. They are doing this while providing instruction and oversight as professors or while conducting research.
Their expertise and around-the-clock patient care in such large numbers is one of the benefits of having a medical school in a community, says Michael Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School.
“I know I speak for our entire community in expressing deep gratitude to our dedicated health care workers and our UB faculty physicians and medical residents who are providing care to our community’s most vulnerable members during this pandemic,” Cain says.
Despite the many complex and enduring challenges for health care workers on the frontlines, UB’s faculty physicians and medical residents have pressed on.
Time and time again during the COVID-19 crisis, they tell us: “This is what we do.”
On the following pages we feature photographs of some of these UB faculty physicians and medical residents, taken during the height of the pandemic. It is our hope that these portraits will serve as part of a historical record that will acknowledge and honor their service to the community.
—S. A. UNGER, EDITOR
