Second Opinion

In addition to being a major research university, we are determined to be a comprehensive, top-flight academic health center. Success in this regard must be measured in three dimensions: providing leading-edge patient care in our community and state; delivering the highest quality of education to the next generation of health-care professionals; and, through state-of-the-art research, creating the knowledge to heal.

In order to provide leading-edge patient care, it is crucial that we also invest in the clinical enterprise. Some of these investments are baby steps behind the scenes as we attempt to mold our 450 faculty representing every conceivable discipline (both specialty and primary care) into a functional multidisciplinary team.

Hence, we are creating a print- and Web-based directory to help outside referring physicians, as well as to facilitate internal referrals to fellow UofL experts. We are pushing a common medical information system and a new "Access One" telephone number that will provide patients and referring physicians with centralized information about UofL providers.

Other investments in the clinical enterprise will be more visible, including a planned faculty office building that will allow patients to access multiple specialists in one location.

The creation of a new Department of Urology under the leadership of Anthony Casale, M.D., and the recruitment of Lindsey Henson, M.D., Ph.D., to direct our Department of Anesthesiology provide outstanding clinical expertise and leadership as we grow our capabilities in these important areas.

Future investments are planned in pulmonology, rheumatology and allergy-immunology, and we continue to make visible strategic investments in pediatrics, heart care and cancer care.

Working with our three hospital partners (Norton Healthcare, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and University Hospital), we are achieving the goal of making the best health care in the world available to Kentuckians.

The James Graham Brown Cancer Center's multidisciplinary cancer clinics have proven that this patient-centered model brings the best of what we have to offer as an academic medical center directly to the patient. Our diverse and comprehensive faculty will enable us to replicate this delivery model in many other disciplines.

>Another key strategy of bringing care to patients when and where they need it is our intention to take UofL Health Care expertise from our downtown hub to satellite facilities in rapidly growing areas of Jefferson County, surrounding counties and Southern Indiana, as well as into Western Kentucky.

This will be accomplished by working with local hospitals and providers to identify ways that we can complement existing services. These new locations will provide opportunities for clinical research and new clinical experiences for students in medicine, dentistry, nursing and public health.

Delivering outstanding educational experiences is critical to our ability to provide the experts that our state and region will need in the future. To that end, two new degree programs welcomed their first classes to the Health Sciences Center this fall.

The School of Public Health and Information Sciences' Master of Public Health program provides instruction in biostatistics, epidemiology, health education, health management and environmental and occupational health. Studies report that as many as 20 percent of the country's public health jobs are going unfilled because of a lack of qualified applicants, and this program will help address that critical need.

The School of Nursing's newly established Ph.D. program provides a B.S.N.-to-Ph.D. and an M.S.N.-to-Ph.D. option, along with opportunities for hands-on learning in health policy, education, leadership and research. Graduates of this program will help address critical shortages in nursing education and clinical practice leadership that threaten our health-care system.

The School of Dentistry reports an ever-increasing demand for outreach in dental education, screening and care for underserved populations. The first class of Williams' Scholars -- named for longtime dean John Williams, D.M.D. -- is helping to meet some of the need by participating in clinical care and outreach in Henderson, Paducah, Murray, Shelbyville, Bowling Green and other outlying areas as a condition of their scholarships.

We continue to achieve great progress in the area of research, with the largest increase in National Institutes of Health funding among major research institutions.

More than $72 million has been awarded this past year, including a $22 million grant for the Center for Predictive Medicine.

As you read in the last issue of Medicine magazine, a UofL team led by Roberto Bolli, M.D., has earned an $11.7 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study ways to make the heart resistant to heart-attack tissue damage.

I urge you to read more in this issue about the recent successes of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center and their progress toward new treatments and a better quality of life for patients. These kinds of breakthroughs demonstrate the importance of our mission.

At the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center, we plan to spend the new year reaching even more of our goals and finding new ways to measure our success.

Larry N. Cook, M.D., is executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Louisville and a professor of pediatrics in the School.