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Continuing to celebrate excellence at a time of financial strain
Dr. David Guzick, M.D., Ph.D.
November 12, 2008
In my October 14th newsletter entitled "Celebrating excellence at a time of global uncertainty," I commented on the need to recognize that, even during this historically unprecedented period of globally connected financial upheaval, our core missions remain. Indeed, it is during times like these when the missions of an academic health center—patient care, research, education and community health—become even more important. Knowing our Rochester culture, we are all committed to excellence in carrying out these missions, and in the October 14th newsletter I highlighted two examples of excellence recognized nationally (ACGME "Courage to Lead" award to Dr. Diane Hartmann) and internationally (British Medical Association "Best Book Award" to Drs. Philip Rubin and John Hansen).
John T. Hansen, Ph.D.
In this newsletter, I am pleased to report another way in which the excellence of our Rochester environment has been recognized—this time by our very own scientists. In the November 1, 2008 issue of The Scientist (a magazine for life sciences) Rochester was voted the 10th best place to work in academics.
More than 2,300 scientists nationwide responded to the magazine's annual survey, which included scientists working in educational, government-sponsored, or other non-commercial research institutions. Respondents were asked to assess their work environment according to 41 criteria in eight different categories—job satisfaction, peers, infrastructure and environment, research resources, pay, management and policies, teaching and mentoring, and tenure. While most of the life scientists at the University of Rochester are faculty members of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, some are faculty in several departments of the College of Arts, Science and Engineering, including Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
In The Scientist survey, certainly any listing in the top 50 is cause for institutional celebration, given the very large number of institutions that employ life scientists. Last year we were ranked 37th, certainly quite respectable. But moving up to the 10th position this year is particularly satisfying because of the reasons given by our scientists for their high ratings of the Rochester research environment: excellence of peers, spirit of collaboration, and excellence in our teaching and mentoring.
Stephen Dewhurst,
Ph.D.
Rochester has long been recognized for its collaborative environment, and for developing the talents of younger scientists. As Steve Dewhurst, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research, states: "It's part of the ethos of the University of Rochester that you look out for your colleagues. We have many programs to help scientists grow and develop and build their careers, such as a class to help scientists learn how to write grants to gain funding to do their work. The mentoring of young scientists is extremely important, and it's something that is done well here."
Like the mentoring of new faculty colleagues, the teaching of newer scientists—graduate students—is a high priority as well. According to Edith Lord, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education: "Our strong graduate program, with serious and enthusiastic students who do a great deal of the work involved in our research enterprise, is a strong draw for scientists,"
Karl A. Kasischke, M.D.
In The Scientist article, Rochester was profiled with the example of Karl Kasischke, MD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology in the Center for Neural Development and Disease, who arrived at URSMD three years ago. As soon as Karl arrived he was approached by Thomas Foster, PhD, Professor of Imaging Sciences and editor of a journal for which Karl had been a reviewer. Tom offered Karl full access to his lab and encouraged him to borrow equipment to which Karl otherwise didn't have access. Harris ("Handy") Gelbard, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology and Director of the Center for Neural Development and Disease, gave Karl lab space during renovations. Both of these senior faculty, and others, provided him with important mentoring and support. Karl is now director of SMD's Multiphoton Core, and is also pursuing his own independent research in functional neuroimaging and instrument development for quantitative multiphoton imaging. "Without them," Karl was quoted, "I would probably not be here in this position."
I believe that our institutional commitment to excellence at Rochester will be a key factor in weathering the current financial storms. Our major sources of revenue—endowment, external research funding, royalties and philanthropy—are all being adversely impacted by the financial markets, and expenses are rising. We need to control costs and look for new sources of revenue. One of the ways to do both, while also effecting nonpecuniary improvements, is to apply our collective intellectual capital towards quality improvement in each of our mission areas.
In our clinical mission, job one under the URMC Strategic Plan is to improve our measured benchmarks in patient safety and quality. A series of mini-retreats among medical center leadership—including clinical department heads, chiefs of service, nursing leadership and hospital administration—are focused on this goal. Often, the most important quality improvements in the clinical arena can occur by improving communication and hand-offs, defining and observing uniform protocols, and creating a culture of safety throughout the organization. This is primarily an investment of the human capital already in place, and can yield pay-offs in improved patient outcomes and enhanced pay-for-performance revenues.
Research excellence can also be enhanced by taking advantage of our collaborative culture to an even greater extent. Research sponsors such as the National Institutes of Health continue to call for multidisciplinary research carried out by groups of investigators from different backgrounds who plan and implement studies as a collaborating team. Many resources within URMC have been developed to foster this, such as a Research Resource Inventory to identify faculty across the institution with similar interests, and training programs which encourage multiple mentors from different disciplines. This rich collaborative culture might be viewed as an effective safety net in these times of resource constraint, both in response to current funding trends as well as a means to diversify an individual faculty member's sources of research support.
Edward M. Schwarz,
Ph.D.
Another way in which we are fostering collaboration is by building stronger ties with research colleagues in The College. For example, the Provost's Multidisciplinary Award program, which presently supports three collaborative projects involving faculty from both The College and from the School of Medicine and Dentistry (Computational Approaches for HIV Viral Fitness Research; Mechanistic Studies of G-Protein Rearrangements Using Single Molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; Studies of RNA Strand Invasion Using Gold Nanoparticle Hybridization Assays). Another is the establishment of a new peer mentoring group for a small group of junior physician scientists under the guidance of Dr. Eddie Schwarz; these faculty members are brought together by their shared experiences as clinician researchers, but work in very diverse disciplines. Planned future initiatives include greater integration of shared core resources between SMD and The College.
Overall, our competitiveness with institutions much larger than ourselves, but with a less collaborative culture, certainly endorses our growing reputation as a high quality/high satisfaction place to do research and offers evidence for the old adage: "Bigger is not always better."
In medical student education, course and clerkship directors have been meeting as a task force to consider the curricular refinements that would make an already superb curriculum even better. The Domains of Excellence (see newsletter, August 3, 2007) as a conceptual framework for the curriculum is being readied for incorporation across the four years. Focused improvements are being planned in key areas such as the Ambulatory Clerkship, 3rd-year clerkships, and the 4th-year curriculum. Such efforts will yield tremendous educational returns and reflect the commitment of our faculty and students—an investment in extant human capital.
Edith Lord, Ph.D.
In graduate education, Dr. Edith Lord, our new Senior Associate Dean in this area, has made quality her most important goal. Her major goals include: 1) Increase the quality and diversity of our incoming graduates students, by improving our websites, stepping up our recruitment efforts at universities across the country and establishing liaisons with universities serving under represented minority students. 2) Enhance our training programs so that our students are better prepared to become independent scientists. 3) Establish an office to support post-doctoral fellows, a group whose members are essential for our research enterprise, but for which there are few support mechanisms.
Diane Marie Hartmann,
M.D.
And in graduate medical education, Dr. Diane Hartmann will continue to work with Program Directors and Department Chairs to recruit the best and brightest residents and fellows. Education regarding patient safety and team-based care will continue to expand along with a focus on quality outcomes assessment, consistent with the URMC Strategic Plan.
At this time of significant financial turmoil, made worse because of the profound uncertainty about the future, it seems prudent to work diligently towards excellence with the substantial resources we have in place and focus on the quality of our programs rather than an expansion in their size. We must remind ourselves that the University of Rochester and its medical center and medical school are all about people. It is our people—our students, faculty and staff—whose collective commitment to excellence will transcend the impact of the world's current financial turbulence.
Meliora,
David S. Guzick, MD, PhD
Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry
University of Rochester
Dean's Newsletter
Posted May 28, 2009:
A Fond Farewell to the University of Rochester
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