Dean's Message

Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP, The John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean

In the past I have used this column to provide you with an overview of my annual “State of the School” address, but as of this writing I have not yet delivered that address. I spent the months of December and January at home recovering from kidney transplantation surgery. I received superior care from Steve Bartlett, MD, our new chair of surgery, and a world-class transplant surgeon. My recovery has been steady but slow, and I am glad to be back at work once again. Life-changing events such as a kidney transplant cause one to take stock of one’s life and reassess priorities. My priorities have always been my family and my work, and I return to the helm of the school of medicine more convinced than ever that what we do—train medical students to be caring, compassionate physicians and researchers—is the most noble of professions.

So, while this is not necessarily the update I will give to faculty, staff, students and friends at my upcoming address, it does highlight a few of the achievements of the past year (FY04) for the medical school.

In January, the University of Maryland broke ground on a new biotechnology research development project called the UMB BioPark. The park will be situated on nearly five acres of unoccupied land west of Martin Luther King Boulevard, and will contain 800,000 square feet of space for research labs, offices and parking. The university also plans to incorporate a business incubator and a collaboration center, which means that researchers from the schools of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry will work side-by-side with private biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies in the commercialization of bioscience innovations. You will remember reading about this exciting new biopark in last summer’s issue of Bulletin.

And it gives me great pleasure to tell you that last July we launched the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Health Disparities. Funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Health & Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration and the Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund, this multidisciplinary center will work to identify specific disparities and their causes, and, in collaboration with local communities, develop culturally competent strategies to eliminate them, as well as train new health providers.

Educating medical students is and always has been our number one priority, and I am very proud of the level of diversity we have achieved in our classes. Fully 13 percent of our 2004 entering class was comprised of underrepresented minorities, and 63 percent are women. We received approximately 3500 applications for the 150 spots in our first-year class. We have 1268 students in the School of Medicine, an increase of nine percent over the previous year. New technology continues to be integrated into our teaching mission. Most notably, the main lecture hall and other selected areas have been converted to wireless access so that our students’ computers can be used to augment traditional lectures. Faculty presentation materials are now available to the students in formats that allow for same-day easy review, and Medscope, the website that supports the curriculum, is being designed to be accessible through a PDA, or personal digital assistant, opening an expanded use of curricular materials during the clinical years of medical school. Medical school is a far different place than it was when most of us were students!

Over the last decade, our research awards have more than tripled to $281.2 million in FY04. And we have sustained our remarkable productivity in generating external grants and contracts. According to the latest data available from the AAMC (2002–2003) reporting research expenditures, we are 9th among public medical schools, and 20th among all medical schools. Our clinical faculty continue to rank 4th in research expenditures per faculty in public medical schools. And among all 125 medical schools, we rank 6th—up from 7th the year before. It is important to note once again that our high rankings are not due to hiring more faculty—our excellent rankings are due solely to our existing faculty who are working harder and more effectively than ever.

Just as our research enterprise continues to grow, our fund-raising enterprise has seen steady growth as well. Private giving has been and will continue to be vitally important to our success, particularly in the current fiscal situation. Last year the University of Maryland Fund for Medicine brought in $31 million and, so far in FY05, we have raised $19.1 million. As a result of our donors’ continual generosity, we were able to fund several new endowed professorships, which are critical in recruiting outstanding faculty and retaining our exceptional faculty. I want to again say “thank you” to all of you who continue to generously contribute to your alma mater.

One of the most personally fulfilling aspects of the work we do at this medical school is our ongoing commitment to community service. Our mini-med school program is proving to be more and more successful. This fall marked the fourth year of the program, and we graduated our largest-ever mini-med school class—154 students. About 40 percent of our “student body” are repeats whose desire for knowledge increases each year as they receive intriguing information on brave new medical advances and become more interested in taking control of their own health. We are currently making plans for our fifth annual mini-med school to be held in September and October. Our program is considered a national model by the National Institutes of Health for reaching out to underserved communities in an attempt to deliver up-to-date health information and improve preventive medicine.

As you know, we receive only six percent of our revenues from the state. And while we weathered the budget process last year with only minor reductions in state-supported funding, the outlook for next year is still uncertain. The campus continues to struggle with a structural deficit and with increasing energy costs. We have made concerted efforts to reduce our overhead in ways that do not include laying off faculty and staff; in most cases, we simply did not fill vacant positions. Our limited ability to increase faculty and staff salaries is, for me, the most troubling aspect of this situation. Hopefully, the state’s economy will continue to improve in this next fiscal year. In fact, we’ve recently learned that the governor has included in his budget an increase in funding higher education. Let’s hope that this legislative session is a good one for the School of Medicine.

I look forward to seeing you at reunion in May!