The Dean

Wayne Medicine 1999

The Dean’s First Decade

By Jack Lessenberry

Some heads of medical schools are brilliant research scientists. Others are noted for their managerial talents or their fiscal sense. Dr. Robert Sokol is all of these, and then some. But while he has made giant steps towards putting Wayne State’s School of Medicine on the world-class map, he also shares his office with Roger, a giant stuffed polar bear. We’ll get to that later.

Robert Sokol, MD, this spring celebrated 10 years as dean of Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, years in which the school made breathtaking progress. "I have been very fortunate, you know," the dean says.

"I have gotten to hire experts and make appointments of high quality. The medical school is meeting the needs of the university, and vice versa, serving the cultural center and the greater Detroit area. We’ve got an overall goal to become one of the top 20 schools of medicine in the country," he adds.

Beyond that, he intends to prove that "primary care emphasis and research excellence are not incompatible," something he’s been living all his life.

Few doubt he will get there. Those who know David Adamany know that the former WSU president is not easily given to flattery or small talk. Today, a year and a half after voluntarily stepping down to return to the faculty as a professor of law and political science, Adamany doesn’t mince words when asked to assess the impact Dr. Sokol has had. Without the barest hesitation, he says, "By any measure, he has been a really exceptional dean. He has a broader range of capabilities than one is apt to find in a dean, with credentials on several levels."

"The medical school is meeting the needs of the university, and vice versa, serving the cultural center and the greater Detroit area."

Why he feels that way is not hard to understand. The former president strove for years to take what he saw as a sprawling city college and build it into a prestigious Carnegie I research institution -- a goal he saw accomplished with the help of Dr. Sokol. "He took Wayne from being out of sight, nowhere, in terms of research among the top 125 medical schools to somewhere within the top thirty (actually, 25th.) This has been just remarkable -- he has built a superior center of medical research."

That’s come at a time when grants have been increasingly harder to come by, thanks in large part to tighter restrictions and federal cutbacks.

Yet not only has Sokol been a funding wizard, in the words of Adamany, "he is a very nurturing personality (who) has built a very fine research program without compromising the quality of teaching."

Wayne State President Irvin Reid, who joined the university in 1998, has also been impressed with Sokol’s long-range vision. "I think he’s one of the most creative deans of any medical school I have ever known. I think the central thing about Bob is that he has a university-wide perspective. That’s something you don’t find in a lot of deans."

For George Dambach, now WSU vice-president for research and dean of the graduate school, Dr. Sokol’s major accomplishment has been putting together what eventually became the Barbara Ann Karamanos Cancer Center. "When he came in, cancer research was scattered all over the map," among different departments of the school and medical center.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (right) was bestowed the school's Distinguished Service Award by Dean Sokol at the 1996 commencement ceremonies.

That was highly inefficient, everyone knew. But how do you get people to voluntarily surrender their fiefdoms? Dr. Dambach, who until October was Dr. Sokol’s deputy at the School of Medicine, watched with fascination as Sokol did just that. "He worked very hard for at least two years at getting people to buy into it. This was an extraordinarily complex task, and he was very diligent at it. To get boards anywhere to vote voluntarily to go out of business is very extraordinary, and yet he succeeded." Today, in terms of size and committed dollars, Wayne’s cancer programs dwarf those of the University of Michigan.

The dean assists Mollie Elliman (now deceased) at the opening celebration of the WSU Elliman Clinical Research Building. The ribbon cutting on April 28, 1989 was the dean's first official ceremonial duty.

While running a university school of medicine is hard enough, at Wayne, the job doesn’t stop there. WSU’s School of Medicine exists in symbiosis with The Detroit Medical Center, which includes eight hospitals and 100-plus other care sites. And while WSU’s main mission is teaching, training and research, The Detroit Medical Center is a private enterprise, with a bottom line to meet. Which means the two have somewhat different missions -- and the potential for friction and possible conflicts would seem fairly large. However, while tension isn’t always avoidable, all concerned say what is remarkable is how little of it there is.

Dr. Sokol sporting his signature handlebar mustache.

For proof, ask David Campbell, who took over as CEO of the medical center three months before Dr. Sokol became interim dean in April, 1988, and continued as CEO until the end of 1998. "We had an excellent working relationship. He is outstanding," Campbell said. "I think that’s because we share a common ability to look at the big picture. We recognized that the development of both the medical school and The Detroit Medical Center was essential to both our futures."

Drs. Sokol and Abel led the Fetal Alcohol Research Center which was established at WSU/DMC by the National Institutes of Health.

To know how important that is, consider the financial and payment turmoil rippling through the health care world today. Despite the strong economy, "all academic health systems are going through some tough times," Campbell notes. "Across the country, not one academic center I know is not struggling with finances."

Why? "HMOs are seeking not to pay for education and indigent care," Campbell said. Third-party payers generally draw the line at paying for research, or anything that can be classified "experimental" -- which is a main reason academic health centers exist.

Yet Wayne State, the only medical school in the city, and The Detroit Medical Center both have a special "urban mission," which means, among other things, providing health care for those who can least afford it. In fact, Campbell said, the DMC had to absorb $150 million in non-reimbursed gross charges last year.

That means both the school and center have to be cost-conscious elsewhere -- an ability that wins the dean high praise from Campbell, DMC’s past-president. "He sees the academic side of operations almost as a business investment," Campbell said, noting that Dr. Sokol is also senior vice president for medical affairs of The Detroit Medical Center.

"He is able to look at the total market as opposed to a little corner of it. That doesn’t mean the men haven’t disagreed, or haven’t had conflicting priorities. "But Bob is the kind of manager who is always looking for a solution. He focuses on things that find the answer, not the things that create the problem." Much of the time, he succeeds.

But Dr. Sokol is no mere super medical bureaucrat. Dr. Dambach thinks of him first as a superb researcher, who brings in $2 million a year in grant funding, and is perhaps the nation’s foremost authority on fetal alcohol syndrome.

"Well, I never could forget the first time I saw him; he was sporting a magnificent handlebar mustache," Dr. Dambach said. That was in the summer of 1983; Dr. Sokol, a native of Rochester, NY was newly arrived in Detroit. Then just 41 years old, he had been recruited by the man he would follow as dean, the legendary Dr. Henry Nadler, to be chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology. "He started making an impact right out of the box," Dambach said.

Leaning back on a white sectional sofa in his office, Dean Sokol, now handlebar- free, remembered those days. Back then ob/gyn "was in need of academic resuscitation."

The department had a falling clinical service load; one of its residencies was on probation, and external grant support was next to nothing. Within five years, the department was judged to have obtained "top ten" status, partly on account of his establishment of the Fetal Alcohol Research Center, at the DMC’s Hutzel Hospital with a $5 million National Institutes of Health grant.

In recent years, obstetrics has not been a glamour specialty. The myth was that all the best medical students became cardiologists or neurosurgeons. That’s not how Dean Sokol sees it. Matter of fact, he still can occasionally be found in the delivery room.

"Every time I deliver a baby, it is a rush," he said. "OB is, well, it is like champagne and caviar; either you love it or you don’t," he said.

Dr. Sokol loves it. Amazingly, he nearly ended up becoming a philosopher rather than a physician. Born less than three weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he studied philosophy as an undergrad, earning a bachelor’s degree with highest distinction from the University of Rochester. He thought about earning a doctorate.

But he turned first for advice to a man who he still regards as a mentor, his father, Eli; now 86 years young, who built a business of clothing stores for big and tall men.

"My father said, ‘a career in philosophy? What are you going to do -- make more philosophers? Why not go out and help people?’" That made sense to his son, who had a growing interest in medicine anyway. He went on to complete an MD, with honors, at the University of Rochester; then became a resident in obstetrics/gynecology, then an executive chief resident, at Washington University’s Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.

Robert, Eli and Mildred Sokol greet a guest at the Elliman Building opening.

He served in the Air Force and later returned to Rochester as a faculty member. From there, it was on to Case Western. When the offer came from Wayne, an offer he considered while on a camping trip with his family, wife Roberta Sue, (whom he started dating when they were undergraduates and to whom he has been married nearly 35 years) and his daughter Melissa, and twin sons Eric and Andrew. (Today, all three are doctors--all having gone through Wayne State’s School of Medicine.)

Detroit was not exactly somewhere people were excited to relocate to in the early ‘80s. Nor did Wayne State or the School of Medicine have the prestige they do now. What motivated this bright young researcher to come here?

"I decided I really liked the tire," Dr. Sokol, displaying his puckish sense of humor, told an interviewer, meaning the enormous, rubber-coated Uniroyal advertisement along I-94, near Detroit Metro Airport. "I tell everybody it’s Detroit’s Eiffel Tower," he said.

From left, Ed Thomas, former president of Detroit Receiveing Hospital, Ray Margherio, former Alumni Asociation President, Dean Sokol and former WSU president David Adamany break ground for the new Alumni Walkway in 1991.

Dr. Sokol came to Wayne as professor and chairman of the department of ob/gyn at Hutzel. Less than five years later, he was named interim dean when Dr. Nadler departed for a job in Chicago. There was a national search for a permanent dean, but in the end Adamany made his choice clear. " I thought he had very high potential," he said.

Ten years ago this spring, Dr. Sokol officially became dean of WSU’s School of Medicine, after serving in the interim role for eleven months. Though that was an honor indeed, some might have looked on it as a mixed blessing.

Few deans last 10 years in the same job these days. Longevity might seem especially unlikely at a school of medicine like Wayne State’s. Externally, while WSU is the nation’s largest single-campus medical school, it is often measured against its rival 50 miles west, the richly endowed University of Michigan medical school.

In 1993, the School of Medicine celebrated its 125th anniversary.

Internally, a lot of egos -- 800 full-time faculty --are in competition for programs, research dollars and top students. "The potentials for conflict are enormous," said Adamany. "And yet he has managed to bring them along without any notable conflicts," the former president said. George Dambach thinks he knows why.

Few deans last 10 years in the same job these days. Longevity might seem especially unlikely at a school of medicine like Wayne State's.

"People who know Sokol well know how dedicated and thorough he is," Dambach said. What’s more, "He is the ultimate good guy to work for -- concerned, supportive. What’s most remarkable is his intense loyalty . . . he will be a champion for people who work for him without any question whatsoever."

Dr. Sokol extends an open door policy to all, including students. "Students are the real reason we are here," he said.

During his tenure, Dr. Sokol has paid significant attention to the quality of graduate and undergraduate medical education at the school. He has significantly revised the curriculum to include more clinical relevance in the first two years of medical school. He has expanded and strengthened clinical experience for students through a formal alliance with a hospital consortium and by appointing community deans with oversight for medical education at training sites outside the DMC. Board scores have improved, and WSU is still looked upon as one of the premier institutions for clinical training.

Dr. Sokol extends an open door policy to all, including students. "Students are the real reason we are here," he said.

Then, there was the bear. Harold. A nearly life-size stuffed polar bear. Stories vary on where Harold came from, but all know where he lived; Dean Sokol’s somewhat swank, somewhat kitschy office, with photographs and paintings and a long white leather sofa.

"Finding a bear that size wasn’t easy, and disciplining it was even harder," Sokol said with a deadpan expression. "The bear would walk off by itself sometimes, be gone for three or four days," the dean joked about the temporary kidnapping that had occasionally taken place.

Harold the bear was Dr. Sokol's long-time office companion.

Therefore the dean thought little of it when Harold disappeared one day when the Surgeon General was visiting the school. But Harold never returned. "I suspect he’s an oddity on some black market somewhere," he said, a bit wistfully.

However, the bear’s chair has now been filled by a replacement bear named Roger (for former associate dean for administrative and fiscal affairs, Roger Spry). "He’s a little more lifelike than Harold," he mused.

Those who know the dean best remark on his stunning range of interests and knowledge. Music. Art. Opera. "You know, at one time his great desire was to go to the Arctic and photograph polar bears," Dambach remembered. "Somehow, he went to Western China instead and took the famous Silk Route, and did sort of an anthropological study of the changes in physiognomy."

Indeed, any conversation with Robert Sokol is likely to take unforeseen paths, all of them fascinating but not all of them necessarily on the subject at hand. University administrators say if he has a fault, it is not always sticking to the subject at hand.

Apparently, his wide vision has yielded good results. Four years ago, Crain’s Detroit Business concluded that Sokol was building "Wayne State University Medical School into a national powerhouse." But 10 years is a long time. Does he have any plans to change?

The formation of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute united cancer reaearch and clinical programs across the medical school and the medical center.

Well, yes. "I really do work about 100 hours a week, and spend all my time down here," and many a night he and his wife Roberta end up never getting back to their Bloomfield Hills home. So he’s making a change.

The Sokols are now having a spacious new home built . . . on the riverfront in Detroit, the city some of his friends thought he was crazy to come to, where there were almost no single-family housing units built the year he arrived . . and where before building a house, he helped, with a few hundred others, to build a world-class medical school.

That’s where he is now working on a strategic plan to carry the School of Medicine past the changing millennium to the year 2005. "A higher powered crystal ball would help," he kids. Don’t believe him; he has long proven that he is not only smarter, but more forward-looking than your average bear.

A Decade of Progress

After 10 years as dean, Dr. Sokol can reflect
on the following accomplishments:

Increased research ranking from 70th in 1984 to 25th in 1999, placing WSU in the top quarter of medical schools according to the National Science Foundation.	Created the School of Medicine’s first strategic plan in 1990 and continues to monitor and adapt the plan to take the school through the year 2005.
Helped Wayne State University gain distinction as a Research I insitution as designated by the Carnegie Foundation.	Improved the research infrastructure through increased availability of computer resources to network nearly 1200 sites for more efficient information sharing.
Improved retention rates for graduates, with two-thirds of WSU medical school graduates remaining in Michigan to practice medicine. WSU currently ranks second in the nation for the number of graduates practicing in-state.	Led efforts to develop a Physician System Organization, which focuses on capitated business and enters into contracts with managed care organizations. All faculty practice groups and several hundred private physicians have joined.
Maintained the school’s commitment to equality and diversity as evidenced by WSU’s #7 national ranking for the number of underrepresented minority graduates.	Innovated curriculum in both medical and graduate education programs
Was instrumental in uniting many community cancer programs to form the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, one of the 32 cancer centers in the country designated by the National Cancer Institute.	Integrated fundraising efforts for WSU and The Detroit Medical Center beginning in 1995, to achieve a combined four-year total of $210 million by the end of 1998.
Served as principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health grant, which met its goal of identifying factors leading to the attenuation and prevention of alcohol-related birth defects. Dr. Sokol continues to bring in approximately $2 million per year in grant funding.	Added 40 new endowments since 1995 and increased endowments from $18 million to more than $40 million in the past decade.
Built a troubled ob/gyn department into a nationally acclaimed program, which has consistently been among the top-ten ob/gyn programs to be funded by the National Institues of Health.

Dr. Sokol and WSU president Irvin Reid hope to make the WSU School of Medicine one of the top 20 medical schools in the country.

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Wayne Medicine 1999