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July 2012
Research Symposium Slides Available
Slides from the research symposium held on June 22, 2012, entitled ‘Funding the Transition: Making the Move from Individual Research to the Team Science Approach’ are now available online.
http://www.med.upenn.edu/rpd/ResearchSymposium.html
Presentations were made by the following faculty and staff:
Caryn Lerman, Ph.D.
Mary W. Calkins Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Deputy Director, Abramson Cancer Center
"A Team Science Approach to Nicotine Addiction Treatment"
Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management
Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Leonard Davis Institute
“Approaches to Submitting and Administering Program Project and Center Grants”
Stephen Kimmel, M.D., MSCE
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar, Epidemiology
“Coordination and Management of Federal Contracts”
Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Biomedical Cores, Co-Director of the Diabetes Research Center and Associate Director of IDOM
“PSOM Research Core Facilities”
Kate Musselman, M.F.A..
Grant Writing and Scientific Editor
Office of Research Program Development
“How We Can Help”
April 2012
Research Symposium
Funding the Transition: Making the Move from Individual Research to thet Team Science Approach
Friday, June 22, 2012
9:00 to 12:00
BRB II/III Auditorium
Breakfast and lunch will be provided
Cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a necessity for those who wish to take their research program in new directions. Funding agencies solicit grants and contracts for team research projects with increasing frequency, but developing, preparing and overseeing these complex projects presents new challenges. This symposium is targeted to those faculty who are ready to make the transition from individual awards to these more high profile, multidisciplinary projects.
Faculty members who have successfully made this transition will address the opportunities and challenges of obtaining funding for large-scale collaborative research projects, both grants and contracts. Panel members include:
Caryn Lerman, Ph.D.
Mary W. Calkins Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Deputy Director, Abramson Cancer Center
"A Team Science Approach to Nicotine Addiction Treatment"
Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management
Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Leonard Davis Institute
“Approaches to Submitting and Administering Program Project and Center Grants”
Stephen Kimmel, M.D., MSCE
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar, Epidemiology
“Coordination and Management of Federal Contracts”
Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Biomedical Cores, Co-Director of the Diabetes Research Center and Associate Director of IDOM
“PSOM Research Core Facilities”
The discussion will end with lunch and the opportunity for informal networking.
Click here to register
This program is sponsored by the Office of Research Program Development and the Office of the Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer.
March 2012
March 27, 2012
Perelman School of Medicine Researchers Receive $2 Million Grant to Help Prevent Chronic Diseases Among HIV Positive African American Men
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, have received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study novel approaches to preventing chronic diseases in HIV positive African American men.
"African American men who are infected with HIV are living longer than ever before and are now being impacted by the same chronic diseases that affect the general population of African American men over 40," said principal investigator John B. Jemmott, PhD, professor of Communication in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and Kenneth B. Clark Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication. "We know that in addition to standard age-related factors, many of these chronic illnesses have behavioral components—risk is influenced by what people do and don't do, their diet, and the amount of physical activity they get. Based on this complex intersection, we need to identify novel strategies to help these men navigate their lives in the healthiest way possible."
Dr. Jemmott says that although the high risk for multiple behavior-linked chronic diseases among HIV-positive individuals has long been recognized, there is a lack of evidence-based interventions specifically tailored to their needs. The risk is heightened by HIV infection, but also its treatment with certain agents used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) combinations.
The research team’s broad objective is to verify evidenced-based treatment strategies and reduce the risk of chronic diseases among HIV positive African American men. Specifically, they will test the efficacy of a theory-based, contextually appropriate health promotion intervention to induce positive changes in behaviors linked to risk of chronic diseases among HIV positive African American. The study will utilize a randomized controlled trial of 384 African American HIV positive men age 40 or older who are receiving HAART. The intervention will include a five-a-day fruit and vegetable regimen, weight and cardiovascular monitoring, and prostate and colon cancer screenings.
At the end of the study, the researchers will evaluate each patient's health-related fitness (via a six-minute walk test, one-minute push-up test, one-minute sit-up test, sit-and-reach test), physiological variables (blood pressure, body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio), and participation in prostate and colon cancer screenings.
"We hope this research will help in the urgent need for interventions to reduce the risk of non-HIV related chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes in HIV positive African American men age 40 and older," said Dr. Jemmott.
Additional Penn faculty involved in the trial are: Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Ian Frank, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases, Perelman School of Medicine; and Scarlett Bellamy, ScD, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine.
March 14, 2012
John Kucharczuk M.D. Appointed Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery
It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. John Kucharczuk as Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. A multidepartmental search committee led by Dr. Michael Acker, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, provided valuable assistance in reviewing candidates for this position. After evaluating a number of outstanding individuals from around the nation, it was clear that the best candidate to lead the Division of Thoracic Surgery was Dr. Kucharczuk and I am delighted that he has agreed to serve as Division Chief.
A lifelong Pennsylvanian, John Kucharczuk did his undergraduate work at Villanova and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He subsequently trained in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, before joining our faculty in 2002. In 2009 he was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery, and for the past year has served as the interim Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Kucharczuk is the busiest thoracic surgeon in the region, and is an exceptional technician, performing complex pulmonary, esophageal and mediastinal procedures. He is also an active clinical investigator, has served on NIH study sections, and is involved in national efforts focusing on surgical quality improvement. In addition to his outstanding work in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Kucharczuk has received recognition for his successful organization and leadership of the multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology program in the Abramson Cancer Center.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Kucharczuk and welcoming him to his new role.
Jeffrey Drebin, M.D., Ph.D.
March 8, 2012
13 Novel Genetic Components of Coronary Artery Disease Identified
An international analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies involving over 100,000 patients has identified 13 new genetic risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Muredach P. Reilly, MBBCH, MSCE, associate professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and colleagues played a central organizing role in the international consortium, CARDIoGRAM (Coronary Artery Disease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis), that combined and analyzed data from all currently published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on heart attack and CAD, as well as some unpublished data. The data include more than 22,000 patients, 60,000 healthy individuals, and 45,000 additional subjects, meaning CARDIoGRAM is ten times bigger than the largest previous study. By pooling all of the published and unpublished data, they sought to make discoveries that might have been overlooked. The study is published online this week in Nature Genetics.
“This very large international collaboration has doubled the number of new CAD and heart attack genes and provides major opportunities for better understanding of causes, advancing personalized risk assessment, and developing new treatments to prevent and treat heart disease,” said Reilly.
CAD is a common condition where the arteries supplying blood to the heart develop cholesterol rich plaques which can rupture suddenly causing a heart attack. CAD is a complex condition that has both genetic and lifestyle components.
In addition to identifying the 13 novel loci associated with CAD, the researchers also discovered that only a minority of the established and novel CAD genes act through traditional risk factors while the majority reside in gene regions that were not previously connected to heart disease.
August 2011
August 18, 2011
Timothy R. Dillingham, MD, MS, named Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
From: J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Ralph W. Muller and Peter D. Quinn, DMD, MD
We are pleased to announce that Timothy R. Dillingham, MD, MS, has been named Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), effective October 1, 2011. At present, Dr. Dillingham is chairman and professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Dillingham’s appointment comes as the result of a rigorous national search led by Dr. Mike Mennuti. Dr. Dillingham succeeds David A. Lenrow, MD, JD, who has served very capably as interim chair of the department.
Penn’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is the oldest in the United States. Over the years, its faculty members have pioneered some of the most essential treatments in the field, including prosthetics and orthotics, as well as computer-based vocational training. The department’s influence has long been significant: at one point, an estimated 10 percent of the physiatrists in the United States were graduates of the residency program.
Dr. Dillingham earned his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1986. He went on to take his internship and residency there while also earning his M.S. degree in rehabilitation medicine. From 1990 to 1994, Dr. Dillingham was a clinical instructor and then assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He then joined the Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation. In 1997, he was promoted to associate professor. During his last four years at Johns Hopkins, he also had an appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Dillingham joined the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2003.
In addition, Dr. Dillingham was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1982. He was promoted to Captain in 1986 and to Major in 1992. In 1994, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for exemplary performance of duties at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had served as staff physiatrist and director of research for PM&R; he was honorably discharged that same year.
Dr. Dillingham’s research interests include the rehabilitation and long-term outcomes for amputees, especially when the amputations are caused by poor vascular status of a limb. He is also widely recognized as an expert in the electrodiagnosis of patients with limb symptoms and musculoskeletal disorders and is active clinically, seeing patients at Froedtert Hospital and at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, both in Milwaukee.
Among Dr. Dillingham’s many honors is the Distinguished Researcher Award from the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. For the last four years, he has been included in “America’s Top Doctors” by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. In 2000, Dr. Dillingham won the Research Writing Award of the Association of Academic Physiatrists for an article published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Since 1991, he has been a fellow of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He has also been recognized for his teaching. In 2004, he received the Robert Boyle, M.D., Teacher of the Year Award, given by the residents in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin; in addition, he twice was honored with the “Golden Spoon” Faculty Teaching Award by residents at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Dr. Dillingham has been extensively published in his field and has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as well as a referee for several other journals. He was an editor of two volumes of Rehabilitation of the Injured Combatant, part of the Textbooks of Military Medicine Series published by the Office of the Surgeon General, and an invited guest editor for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America.
While his research has being consistently funded over the years, Dr. Dillingham has not limited himself to the more traditional areas of research. Last year, for example, he received funding for a pilot grant from the VA Health Services Research & Development Service for “Guitars for Vets: Evaluating Psychological Outcomes of a Novel Music Therapy.” In 2008, he was the principal investigator on “Low-cost Prosthesis for Developing Countries,” for which the goal was to design, create, and test a low-cost and high-strength prosthetic system for persons with below the knee amputations.
Currently president of the board of directors of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Dr. Dillingham has also served as the chairman of the association’s Research Committee. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, he has held several important administrative positions, including chairman of the physicians’ practice Finance Committee, representative on the Curriculum and Evaluation Committee, and member of the Medical Executive Committee and of the Strategic Planning Committee – experiences that will serve him well at Penn Medicine. In addition to his role as Chair of PM&R, Dr. Dillingham will serve on the board of Good Shepherd Penn Partners.
With such a proud heritage as a base in Penn’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, we are confident that Dr. Dillingham will lead the department with vision and enthusiasm.
August 5, 2011
Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel Named Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor
President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price are pleased to announce that Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a globally renowned bioethicist, will join the faculty as the thirteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, beginning September 1, 2011.
Dr. Emanuel will be the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives. His appointment will be shared between the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, which he will Chair, and the Department of Health Care Management in the Wharton School, pending formal ratification by the School faculties, the Provost’s Staff Conference, and the University trustees.
“The University of Pennsylvania is tremendously fortunate to have attracted to our faculty one of the most insightful and well-respected bioethicists of our time,” said President Gutmann. “Zeke Emanuel is an eminent scholar, a passionate teacher, a collaborative leader, and a tireless public servant. He has time and again demonstrated the vital importance of putting the broadest and deepest understandings to work in service of others. I am delighted that he will join the ranks of our esteemed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professors.”
Dr. Emanuel, one of the world’s leading scholars of bioethics and health care, will be the inaugural Chair of the Perelman School’s new Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy. The founding Chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health since 1997, he served from February 2009 to January 2011 as Special Advisor for Health Policy to the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
He is an author or editor of nine books, including the landmark study The Ends of Human Life (Harvard University Press, 1991), and hundreds of articles and essays, across such topics as health care reform, the ethics of clinical research, end-of-life care, managed care, and the physician-patient relationship. He has published in such leading medical journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and JAMA, as well as in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and many other publications.
He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; served on President Clinton’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the bioethics panel of the Pan American Health Organization; received such awards as the AMA-Burroughs Wellcome Leadership Award, the Public Service Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the John Mendelsohn Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center; and been a visiting professor at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and the University of Pittsburgh.
“I am delighted to welcome Zeke Emanuel as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives,” said Provost Price. “The extraordinary range of experience and expertise that he brings to this new role will play a critical part in shaping our global activities in the years ahead. And his leadership in interdisciplinary knowledge, ethical inquiry, and global engagement – three of our most important values – willprove a great asset to the entire Penn community.”
Dr. Emanuel earned an MD (1988) and a PhD in Political Philosophy (1989) from Harvard University, an M.Sci. in Biochemistry from Oxford University (1981), and a BA in Chemistry from Amherst College (1979). Before joining the NIH in 1997, he was Associate Professor of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, where he taught since 1992.
The Penn Integrates Knowledge program was launched by President Gutmann in 2005 as a University-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines and who are jointly appointed between two Schools at Penn.
The Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professorship is the generous gift of Penn Trustee Robert M. Levy, WG’74, and his wife Diane v.S. Levy. Mr. Levy is partner, chairman and chief investment officer of Harris Associates LP, an investment management firm. Mr. Levy is chair of Penn’s Investment Committee, co-chair of Making History: The Campaign for Penn, chair of Innovation and Leadership: The Campaign for Wharton, and vice chairman of the Wharton Board of Overseers. Mrs. Levy is a member of the Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Special announcement from Richard P. Shannon, Chair, Department of Medicine
Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce the creation of a new Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics within the Department of Medicine, effective July 1, 2011. This new Division, which supersedes the current Divisions of Medical Genetics and Experimental Therapeutics, will be led by Daniel Rader, MD. The decision to create this Division was a result of the Department’s recognition of the close relationship between Translational Medicine and Human Genetics and my desire to facilitate both existing departmental research activities and new recruitment in these important areas.
Dan is a graduate of the Medical College of Pennsylvania. After he completed a residency in Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, he spent five and a half years at the intramural program at NHLBI. He was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Genetics, later moving to the Division of Experimental Therapeutics. He is currently the Cooper-McClure Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and is an Associate Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT). Dan also has close ties to both the Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) and the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism (IDOM).
Dan is an internationally recognized investigator in the molecular physiology and human genetics of lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis and their implications for translational medicine and therapeutics. His research program has received extensive federal, foundation, and industry funding and he has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles. Dan is a member of ASCI and AAP, is on the Board of External Experts of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and is currently serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation based at Penn.
At Penn, Dan has led the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Lipid Clinic for many years. In addition to his role in ITMAT, he has served as Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), a role from which he will be stepping down as part of this transition. Dan has participated in a number of search committees, review committees, and strategic planning committees for the Department and the School of Medicine. He is currently leading an initiative to develop a comprehensive PennMedicine BioBank.
As Chief of the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, Dan will play a leadership role in facilitating the growth and development of research programs in these areas. I am immensely grateful to Reed Pyeritz, the Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics, and to Garret FitzGerald, the Chief of the Experimental Therapeutics Division, for their leadership and their endorsement of this transition.
Please join me in congratulating Dan and welcoming him to this new role.
Rick Shannon
July 2011
Greetings from Dr. J. Larry Jameson
Dear Colleagues:
I am delighted to be joining you at the newly named Perelman School of Medicine. Nearly 250 years ago, our school was founded as the first medical school in the United States. John Morgan and his colleagues introduced two fundamental principles that still resonate today: 1) the medical school should be built within an institution of higher learning; and 2) lectures should be supplemented with bedside teaching. Penn’s success through the years is due in no small part to our ongoing commitment to these principles. The Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) – Penn Medicine – has achieved the rare distinction of being recognized in each mission area - outstanding education, research, and clinical care. As an integrated academic medical center (AMC), Penn Medicine pioneered the concept that our missions are inextricably linked and interdependent. Our obligation is to fully leverage this model to improve health through discovery, training, and effective health care delivery. Looking forward, this will require a combination of ambition, engagement, transparency, innovation, and accountability as we balance many competing opportunities in a rapidly changing environment.
As I begin, I wish to first express my sincere gratitude to President Amy Gutmann and the trustees of University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine for the opportunity to serve this exceptional institution. President Gutmann is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about Penn Medicine and it is a privilege to work with one of the extraordinary leaders in higher education. She and I share a strong desire to both strengthen and extend meaningful connections with other schools within the University. Our interest goes well beyond the traditional goal of fostering interdisciplinary research – we are committed to developing new areas of research and learning at the interfaces of different disciplines. I look forward to working with my fellow Deans, who have been uniformly welcoming and energizing, to help achieve this vision.
The very first phone call I received after being appointed as the next Executive Vice President of the University for the Health System and Dean was from Arthur Rubenstein, offering congratulations, encouragement, and support during the transition. I have known Arthur for 25 years and like other leaders in academic medicine, I have benefited from his mentoring at critical junctures. Arthur has had a transformative effect on Penn Medicine. However, his reach and impact have been much broader, serving as a national thought leader and champion for translational research, medical and graduate education, and clinical excellence. Among his many attributes, Arthur demands the highest standards and has an unparalleled ability to identify and recruit promising faculty. Over the last 9 months, he and I have worked seamlessly to maintain Penn’s momentum during the transition, including a number of key recruitments and retentions. I look forward to having Arthur as a colleague and advisor as we look to the next phase of Penn Medicine’s evolution. I also want to acknowledge the warm welcome provided by many of you during my visits to learn more about Penn. Vince Price and Craig Carnaroli, in particular, unselfishly dedicated themselves to orienting me to the full spectrum of Penn’s resources, activities, and processes. In Ralph Muller, Penn Medicine has one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, and effective CEO’s in academic medicine. Beyond his skill in hospital leadership and health policy, Ralph shares an abiding commitment to all of our missions. His leadership team, along with the Vice-Deans, have provided me with a wealth of background information. The Chairs and Center directors are not only recognized leaders in their respective fields but they provide extraordinary leadership and service to Penn. Camaraderie is evident in this group and, in addition to stewarding their own areas, they have an unwavering devotion to Penn Medicine as a whole. I look forward to interacting with this exceptional leadership team as we chart a course for the future.
I was attracted to Penn for many reasons, but among these, two stand out. First is the exceptional the caliber of the faculty, students, and staff; second is the integrated model and culture of Penn Medicine. I suspect that many of you chose Penn for similar reasons. It is rare for an institution to truly excel in clinical care, research, and teaching. Penn has accomplished this objective with extraordinary balance. Indeed, this balance is arguably the key element in Penn’s success with clinical care inspiring research, with research providing new clinical paradigms and hope for patients, and with education providing an environment teeming with curiosity and a demand for evidence. Penn Medicine is ideally poised to catalyze ongoing synergy among these missions but this will require careful planning and communication among faculty who increasingly develop highly specialized careers.
I have had a chance to meet many of you over the last few months. With each encounter, I learn more about Penn and its remarkable breadth and depth of talent. I look forward to introducing myself to you formally and informally. While I am innately curious about all fields of medicine and biology, I do not confuse curiosity and expertise. It is invigorating for me to learn about the full expanse of activities at Penn.
As we look to the future, I offer a few observations:
Penn is building from a position of strength. The faculty are outstanding, well-funded and generate extraordinary scholarship. The research portfolio is broad and deep. There is particular expertise in translational research and collaborative science – topics of clear focus for funding agencies. The research facilities are among the best in the world and have been enhanced further with the opening of TRC. It is incumbent upon us to maximize this opportunity through effective mentoring, collaboration, and investments in innovative programs and technologies. Penn is also widely recognized for clinical excellence, reflecting the presence of master clinicians, outstanding training programs, and effective collaborations with nursing, pharmacy, and other disciplines. The institutional focus on quality and efficiency is critical preparation for the current and future health care environment. The Penn educational programs for medical students, graduate students, residents and fellows are arguably the best in the country. One cannot underestimate the impact of these training programs as they enrich each mission area and provide a pipeline of talent for Penn and other academic medical centers. Despite these strengths in research, clinical care and education, great institutions such as ours cannot be complacent and can always achieve more. Together, we aspire for excellence, if for no other reason because it is exhilarating to achieve ever greater impact.
Innovation occurs at the edges of disciplines. Few of us would have predicted the stunning progress in regenerative medicine, epigenetics, or microRNAs. We have also learned, largely from other fields, that applying process improvement and rigorous measurement can close gaps in health quality and safety. Medical and graduate students now learn in new ways and must do so to prepare themselves for a future that will require the management of unprecedented amounts of information and the implementation of new models for health care delivery and team-based research. Penn Medicine is fortunate to have natural connections to other disciplines, such as engineering, business, communications, social sciences, and others. There is great opportunity for those of us in medicine to lead the next wave of innovation by fostering even stronger relationships with these other schools.
Culture is the underpinning of institutional success. Culture is a combination of values and revealed actions. Penn has a deep commitment to excellence, adapting to change, influencing the external environment, serving the needs of the local community, and providing support to peers through mentoring and collaboration. This culture needs to be celebrated, reinforced, and cultivated. We should seek diversity, in all of its dimensions, as a means to adapt to the needs of society. A diverse faculty, student body, and workforce, combined with a culture that is open to new ideas, can also foster innovation and enhance our prospects for success.
Planning, prioritization, execution, and accountability are necessary to advance our missions. As we face the daunting challenges of the external environment, transparency and communication will be critical for maximizing our effectiveness. Long-range planning can be elusive as we move from one day to the next, particularly given the ever-increasing burden of documentation and administrative oversight. I am convinced that institutions evolve effectively by deep engagement with faculty to develop strategic priorities and then insure that these goals come to fruition. Every dynamic organization has at least a 10 to1 ratio of great ideas to available resources. A primary goal is for the stakeholders – all of us - to feel invested in the strategic process and choices once they are made.
Each time I step onto our beautiful campus and see hundreds of students, scientists, and clinicians flow in and out of buildings, I stand in awe of the enormous potential of Penn Medicine to generate new knowledge and improve health. I look forward to working with all of you as we envision and shape the future of academic medicine.
Sincerely,
J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D.
© 2011 The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania