E. Albert Reece, MD, Phd, MBA Vice President for Medical Affairs, The John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, School of Medicine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has now entered its third century. What an accomplishment! And what an opportunity it presents to rededicate ourselves to our missions of discovery, healing and teaching. Our bicentennial celebration was exciting and permitted us to highlight our past as we celebrated our accomplishments of the last 200 years. Now it is time to change course and focus on the next 200 years of history-making discoveries.

What’s on my mind is change. Change, as you know, is a good thing. It’s necessary, and it happens whether we like it or not. As such, we thought it was a good time to change—to update—the Bulletin. We’ve renamed our venerable publication. It is now called University of Maryland Medicine Bulletin. Because we are also widening our circle of friends and colleagues to whom this magazine is sent, we wanted it to be immediately obvious with which medical school the magazine is affiliated. University of Maryland Medicine Bulletin will continue to provide alumni with important news about their alma mater, and will provide our friends with articles relevant to science and medicine in the 21st century.

You’ll notice in this issue a new look to America’s oldest medical alumni publication—more pages, more photographs, and more news. You’ll see an additional feature story each issue, as well as more pages devoted to faculty accomplishments, allied health news and our development enterprise.

Speaking of development, did you know that your generosity compares favorably to our peers? According to the latest Association of American Medical Colleges development survey (2006), the University of Maryland School of Medicine ranks 14th in total private support among all public and private medical schools. Nationally, private support to public medical institutions decreased by three percent from 2005 to 2006. Here, at the University of Maryland, our private support increased by five percent! That is quite an accomplishment and one for which we should all be proud.

As I have indicated in a number of previous messages, philanthropy will play an increasingly important role in this institution’s current and future success. As we develop our vision plan for the next five years and beyond, the University of Maryland School of Medicine will look and act more like a private institution. Toward this end, we will rely on private support to enhance our academic programs, bolster our research initiatives and transform our patient care efforts.

The editorial board and I look forward to hearing your feedback on the “new” Bulletin.