School of Medicine

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Vision 2011 Update - July 13, 2006

Dear colleagues,

As we enter the summer months, it is my pleasure to take pause to update you on our early progress toward Vision 2011.

I just returned from Bethesda, Maryland, where I was privileged to serve the National Institutes of Health as a member of its Special Review Panel for the very first round of Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) proposals. Since it is a goal of Vision 2011 to position the School of Medicine to submit a full CTSA proposal within five years, this assignment was a unique opportunity for me to understand the NIH's expectations of the institutions that will become the elite cadre of leaders in clinical translational science. As we continue to develop our multidisciplinary program foci, I anticipate that this experience will be of great value to planning efforts for our own CTSA, which you will be hearing more about in the coming months.

Also essential to Vision 2011 is construction of a new, multidisciplinary research building here on the School's downtown campus, and I am pleased to report that we are moving ahead according to plan. Six finalists emerged from seventeen responses to Wayne State University's RFP for building design; presentations to our selection committee by those six finalists will conclude today. We expect to have a final decision by the end of July, and a signed contract by mid-August. The six-month building design process will begin this fall. I am likewise pleased to report that renovations of the third floor of Scott Hall are complete.

During the first four months of my tenure, I have met with many alumni and community constituencies, including our affiliated hospital systems. From these meetings, I have learned more about our extended family and partners, and heard many perspectives of the School and its role in the community. With each meeting, I have become more impressed by the geographical reach of the School of Medicine, and even more convinced that our responsibility is that of a regional resource with a corresponding service scope. As I shared with you on May 18, I am committed to expanding our existing partnerships for undergraduate medical education to include research and graduate medical education.

WSU's affiliation in June with the Oakwood Healthcare System is early progress toward this goal. The WSU/Oakwood affiliation will enrich our base for translational research to include both Arab-American and Hispanic-American populations, and will begin to diversify our GME training base.

As I have affirmed on many occasions, the School of Medicine's partnership with the Detroit Medical Center and its commitment to the city of Detroit are central components of our mission support, and will remain so. The School and the DMC collaborate on many programs of national renown and share a beautiful downtown campus. It is on this campus that Wayne State University will, over the next five years, invest some $200 million in two new state-of-the-science facilities — the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D. Medical Education Commons, and the multidisciplinary research building that I discussed earlier in this message.

However, as the School begins to extend its reach into the broader southeast Michigan community that we serve, I am aware that many of you are deeply concerned about the future of the WSU/DMC relationship. Although I anticipate that our organizations will continue to independently develop new programs as we align our shared interests and goals, new initiatives by the School or by the DMC to build programs independent of our partnership should not be misinterpreted as diluting our mutual commitment to the programs that we choose to build together.

I am personally committed to defining the scope and terms of our next contracts by September 30 to ensure the continuity of programs within the scope of our longstanding partnership. To this end, Mike Duggan and I will meet with me next week to finalize the negotiation process and timeline; I remain hopeful that we will come to agreement on these issues by the end of this month. Please be assured that I will update you as we make progress on this issue.

Finally, the Office of the Dean is initiating a strategic planning process, which we will launch the last quarter of 2006. Toward this end, I have been seeking input from both internal and external constituencies on the planning process. Many of you have asked me how you can be of service in achieving Vision 2011; in August we will circulate a survey to the faculty and staff that will extend an opportunity to all of you to weigh in on issues that are central to our upcoming planning process.

Although the Wayne State University School of Medicine is much greater than the sum of its parts, each of you plays an essential role in the mission of the School and the value it brings to the region and beyond. I am grateful to our faculty, students, residents and staff for their work and service in benefit of an ever-expanding community. I look forward to sharing future progress with you.

Enjoy the summer.

Sincerely,

Robert M. Mentzer, Jr., MD
Dean, School of Medicine
Senior Advisor to the President
for Medical Affairs

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