Message from the Dean
The modern American university is a product of two contrasting points of view. The first defines the university as an organization dedicated to public service. An alternative point of view was articulated by John Cardinal Newman in the 1850’s where he described the university as a citadel aimed at “raising the intellectual tone of society, cultivating the public mind, purifying the national taste, and supplying true principles and popular aspirations, at giving a margin of sobriety to the ideas of the age, as facilitating the exercise of political powers, and refining the intercourse of private life.”
Medical schools attempt to bridge both of these viewpoints: service to the public and cultivating the mind. The University of Louisville School of Medicine bridges these views by being a community of scholars dedicated to the generation, conservation, and dissemination of knowledge about the causes, prevention, and treatment of human disease.
We have a long and honorable history and outrageous ambition for the future. The University of Louisville School of Medicine is aggressively building clinical and laboratory facilities, creating a cancer center, exploring the basic science of cardiovascular disease, and creating centers of excellence in areas ranging from aging to pediatrics.
Schools of Medicine like to say that they are a “three-legged stool” providing clinical care, research, and education. Clinical care, however, is also provided by community hospitals and research is performed by pharmaceutical companies and research institutes. Education, of our three missions, is the only sole responsibility of schools of medicine. It is, therefore, not only one of our responsibilities but our most important responsibility.
I am committed to insuring the highest quality of medical student life inside and outside of the classroom. We are creating the medical library of the future to equip our graduates for the integration of information and technology into their practice.
The School of Medicine has an outstanding track record of research growth and we have an appropriate space plan to support this growing research enterprise.
I believe that the faculty is at the heart of school. They are not employees of the school, they are the school. I look forward to working with our faculty to insure that they have the resources they need to continue their pursuit of excellence.
I am in the clinic on a regular basis and regularly work with medical students and residents in the clinics and on the wards.
The School of Medicine is fortunate to have strong clinical partnerships with our neighboring hospitals, community practices, our colleagues in the Veterans Administration healthcare system, our alumni family, and the Greater Louisville Medical Society.
Together we will shape the University of Louisville School of Medicine’s future and we will have a lot of fun doing so.
Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., FACR
Dean of the School of Medicine
Ford Foundation Professor of Medical Education
Professor, of Radiation Oncology, Pediatrics, and History
