Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Rochester Medical Center

Questions for the new CEO
Why did you want the CEO position
This is a great opportunity. These are
exciting times. The University of
Rochester Medical Center has a long
tradition of excellence in our missions.
As an alumnus of the School of
Medicine and Dentistry, I want to
continue that tradition. In particular,
this is an opportunity to build on our
strengths that have accrued over the last
eight years. The two new research buildings
have given us an enormous increase
in our NIH funding and our faculty.
It’s an exciting time for research in
biomedical science, in particular for
interdisciplinary programs. You can see
this in the biomedical engineering and
optics building now under construction
and the centers of research that have
emerged in the Medical Center. Many
are deeply interdisciplinary. So I think
this is an excellent time to build on our
strengths of collaboration and basic
research. In addition, the NIH and the
public really want basic science to be
translated into clinical therapies.
We have a terrific Medical Center
in terms of delivering health care.
We have outstanding physicians who,
because we’re all in one building,
communicate with investigators. This
creates many opportunities to translate
basic research into clinical benefits.
Just consider the development of the
human papillomavirus vaccine, a superior
example of how basic research gets
translated into a huge benefit, essentially,
the prevention of a cancer.
We now also are the largest
employer in the community, and that
carries with it a responsibility for
economic development. I personally will
put quite a bit of energy into improving
the entrepreneurial spirit of the
University, fostering programs that can
result in spin-off companies, development
of intellectual property and
creation of jobs in Rochester.
Do you see growth at the Medical
Center
We must facilitate bed access to improve
our patient care services. So, we are
planning to add 20 beds in the next
18 months, probably 60 beds in the next
three years. In addition, we must plan
for increases in ambulatory surgery and
medicine. To continue to attract the best
scientists, we must offer superb research
space. I’d like to see us add between
250,000 and 400,000 square feet of space
over the next 10 years. To focus and prioritize
these needs, during the next year we
are going to continue a very intensive
strategic planning process. There are many
exciting areas that I would like to emphasize
as we build new programs — aging,
cognitive dysfunction, obesity, regenerative
medicine, stem cells, and nanotechnology,
to name a few. These are all
areas, where, looking 10 years down the
road, there are going to be huge needs or
huge opportunities for more effective therapies.
By setting into place research and
clinical programs today, we’ll be leaders
10 years from now.
As an alumnus and a native of the
Rochester area, do you bring a special
perspective to the Medical Center
Absolutely. As people say, if you’ve seen
one medical center, you’ve seen one.
Each is unique. Rochester has many
unique traditions of its own. It’s the
home of the biopsychosocial model of
Morgan and Engel. The fact that all
research and clinical operations are
under one roof is a very special part of
this place. The imprint of George Hoyt
Whipple from 1925 lives on. You can see
the very bricks of the hospital that he
built right outside my office. There’s a lot
of tradition here. And as a student, you
come to respect that tradition. I personally
have known six of the seven deans
of the School of Medicine. Dr. Whipple
died when I was a first-year student.