The reason that people come to UF Health, to Shands Children’s Hospital, is because of the dedication, commitment, passion of all those who take care of children. We are the number one hospital in Florida. We have programs ranked in the top 50. When you work at UF, we have the tendency to expect greatness. I think in athletics they say the Gator standard. Well, at UF Health we expect to be amongst the best in the country. And so when ratings come out and U.S. News is one of them, and they provide their rankings, it's this external acknowledgement of what I think most of us know and feel, certainly our patients know and feel, that great medical care, breathtaking science and training that’s unparalleled happens right here. I think the key to improving the lives of the children is research. I think that we are doing cutting-edge research, both in the basic sciences as well as in clinical and translational research. And with that we will clearly make advances to improve the lives of our children. Receiving this external validation at a time of a pandemic is gratifying, but at the same time sobering because it’s a reminder that, while the pandemic has been front and center every day, our teams have still had to face kids with cancer, kids with devastating injuries, kids born with heart ailments.
And every day they deliver greatness. I am so proud of them.
.
