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University at COM/UMA
Charting medicine's future course
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by Jerry Reves, M.D.
Dean, College of Medicine and Vice President, Medical Affairs
 Though
we are still in the midst of the financial “perfect storm,” which
brought unwelcome tidings to the close of 2008, we must enter the new
year with a sense of hope and determination to maintain our commitment
to excellence.
Through hard work and ingenuity, many outstanding achievements took
place last year campuswide. It is clear that the foundation upon which
we are building our future together is solid, despite recent fiscal
erosion.
The launch of MUSC’s capital campaign, “A Partnership of
Promise,” a visionary effort to raise $300 million to enhance our
educational, clinical, and research environments. Proceeds go to
endowed chairs and professorships; student scholarships and
fellowships; academic centers and program endowments; and patient care,
academic and research facilities.
The college is central to this partnership of promise. Our missions are
to educate the next generation of physicians and scientists, care for
the sick and injured, and lead in the discovery of new treatments. We
are passionate about making sure the promise is kept.
The partnership is defined as the state of associating with another in
some action or endeavor. The medical college certainly is a
partnership. Our students work with each other and our faculty and
residents work with each other in teaching, learning and caring for the
sick. Although we develop our students and residents to be
self-sufficient, independent-thinking professionals, if we do our work
properly we also instill in them the sense of awareness for the
partners who will help them be outstanding physicians and
scientists.
We have many other partners as well—our patients, colleagues, and
countless employees and volunteers who help us in reaching our many
critical goals. We are grateful to our alumni and friends for their
ongoing support of our missions.
Everything that we do holds promise for a better tomorrow. Whether it
is the education of our students, the scientific work in our
laboratories and at the bedside, the care of our patients or the
philanthropic support generously given to assist us in all these
endeavors, in all there is the fervent belief that our work will make
for a better world, one success at a time.
At the start of each year, we pause to formally reflect on our progress
through two channels: the college’s annual report and the annual State
of the College address. This year’s report is titled “A Partnership of
Promise,” to demonstrate our commitment to fulfilling the vital
missions we have accepted, individually and as a college, to shape the
future of medicine: http://www.musc.edu/com1/about/AnnualReport2008.pdf
. We hope that you will be inspired when you see the many reasons why
the College of Medicine remains strong.
This is a remarkable era for the medical college. We will all continue
to rely on our many partnerships in these troubling financial times,
keeping our eyes focused on the promise of our work: creating a better
tomorrow for our students, faculty, patients, alumni, friends and
society. The very meaning of the word college invokes our inviolate,
collective sense of self: an organized association of persons having
certain powers and rights, performing essential duties or engaged in a
particular pursuit. Despite considerable adversity, our pursuit remains
excellence.
“MUSC’s accomplishment with the Get With The Guidelines program is an
example of our commitment to providing the highest level of care to our
patients with cardiovascular disease. We realize that by working
together as a team we can improve patient outcomes and save lives,”
said Peter Zwerner, M.D., MUSC cardiologist and co-director of the MUSC
Chest Pain Center.
The need for quality improvement programs is well established, with
more than eight million adult Americans having had a heart attack and
more than 900,000 developing new or recurrent heart attacks each year.
At age 40 or older, 18 percent of men and 23 percent of women will die
within a year after their first heart attack.
Friday, Feb. 13, 2009
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