Burcum: Pearl Jam spotlighted this doctor. Minnesota is letting him leave.

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I still remember how a new and different kind of assignment during the COVID-19 pandemic’s grim early days sent my stress levels through the roof.

With no treatment or even testing for this frightening new infection, the world was shutting down in March 2020. We were all scrambling to lay in supplies for our families and figure out ways to work remotely at a time when video meetings were novel, not the norm.

I was exhausted after working through several weekends when the request came to lead a Star Tribune webinar featuring University of Minnesota Medical School experts. I hadn’t ever done a webinar. I wasn’t fluent in the technology used for one. But saying no wasn’t an option.

Diving into the work usually calms my nerves. Not this time. Then my advance preparations took me into a video meeting with Jakub Tolar, the U’s Medical School dean.

Tolar and I went over how this would work and what the public needed to know. He must have picked up on my anxiety. Toward the end, he smiled and said how important it was to try new things, especially under these circumstances, and that together we’d weather the tech glitches.

This memory surfaced after Tolar recently announced his pending departure. I hope it helps illuminate why his leaving is a such a loss for the state.

My sports-pages colleagues routinely write about athletic all-stars who enter the transfer portal or are traded away. Tolar’s upcoming move to a prestigious new post, leading the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, should be covered the same way. The state is losing a proven physician-leader at a time it can ill afford to do so.

Across the nation, there’s an arms race among universities to build next-generation medical centers. The reason: the potent economic benefits this combo can create, such as high-paying jobs and medtech companies spun off from the cutting-edge research. Minnesota has benefited from this phenomenon (think Medtronic) for decades, but this advantage cannot be taken for granted.

The state also faces a looming shortage of health care providers, especially in rural areas. Tolar has provided bold yet pragmatic leadership to begin addressing this worrisome trend, but much more work lies ahead.

Tolar’s last official day serving as dean and vice president for clinical affairs was Feb. 13, according to a farewell email he sent to colleagues Feb. 10.

Among other interesting career highlights: The band Pearl Jam is a fan of Tolar’s work and invited him on stage during a 2014 concert in St. Paul.

Tolar was not available for an interview last week. But his departure does not come as a surprise. Retaining talented leaders is a challenge in ordinary times, and even more so now, as other states invest in their academic medical centers.

Tolar was a finalist for a University of Arkansas leadership position, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported in mid-December. The story’s author also obtained a message Tolar sent to colleagues around that time in which he suggested that Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, the U president since 2024, wanted to replace him with a leader of her own choosing.

It’s not unusual for new leadership at businesses and universities to bring in their own teams. But Tolar’s loss still cuts.

He has an impressive portfolio of achievements during his 8½ years leading the medical school. Among them:

A 2017 Star Tribune article noted Tolar’s bond with a 17-year-old patient who came to the U for a bone-marrow transplant. The patient wanted to write science fiction about overcoming his disease. He emailed Tolar frequently to learn about medicine and physics. The conversations led the patient’s mom to say, “They’re almost soul mates.”

Tolar’s moment with Pearl Jam also captures a fundamental element that has fueled his career. Lead singer Eddie Vedder called him on stage and handed him the microphone.

“I am a bone-marrow transplant physician and what I do for a living has lots to do with what he does for a living,” Tolar said, referencing Vedder. ”What we both do is give people hope!"

The crowd went wild.