The Dean's Open Letter Series - Research Vision

September 29, 2006

Dear Colleagues, Students, Alumni and Friends:

This is the first in a series of open letters that I will send to you over the next several months to elucidate my vision for the University of Maryland School of Medicine and to seek your support and cooperation in achieving this vision. In each of these open letters, I will review one of our mission areas. In this letter, I will review our research mission, which, as you know, is crucial and is interwoven into our other academic (teaching and clinical) missions. Our mission areas are not mutually exclusive and cannot be viewed separately; rather they are interdependent and complement each other.

I have come to know and appreciate the long and distinguished history of the School of Medicine, from its founding in 1807 to the present, where we will celebrate our bicentennial in 2007. I believe our remarkable history presents us with two indisputable imperatives: the first is to sustain the existing accomplishments, and the second is to move to the next level of excellence. Research elevates the quality of our clinical care and our educational programs, and casts a halo of excellence over our entire campus. It also impacts positively on the recruitment and retention of faculty and staff.

The research field is changing. There is greater interest— appropriately so—on clinical and translational research as an expansion of the overall research enterprise. Simultaneously however, the federal government is freezing and, to some extent, reducing the NIH budget. This is particularly challenging coming on the heels of the previous doubling of the NIH budget. Despite these changes in the research landscape, we must remain undaunted and find new strategies to accomplish our goals.

My five-year vision for research, stated succinctly, is for the University of Maryland School of Medicine to be known for its uniquely transforming research and discoveries in key areas. The positive impact this accomplishment will have on all other mission areas and on the health and well-being of patients and the citizens throughout the state and the nation cannot be overemphasized. I also envision and anticipate that within this time frame such excellence in research programs will propel us into the elite top 20.

To achieve the aforementioned goals, the School of Medicine must continue to protect and nurture our current research portfolio and our investigators at every level (students, residents, fellows and faculty). We must further expand our research enterprise. This will require additional grants and contracts to support each investigator’s career progress. I have had made site visits to many research institutions across the country, and I am pleased to report that the research infrastructure of our School of Medicine is excellent. We are also ahead of many of our peer institutions in the country in many key research areas such as infectious diseases and vaccine development, defense against biological and radiological threats, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, international medicine and health disparities. We are expanding our molecular investigative programs as well as our programs in genomics, proteomics and computational biology. We are also privileged to be close to the National Institutes of Health, which provides a wealth of opportunities for collaborative research.

One of our greatest strengths lies in the School of Medicine’s Research Affairs Advisory Committee. This group facilitates interaction among investigators within the School of Medicine and with the other schools on campus. A strong research infrastructure and an organized research community are imperative to the School of Medicine’s success in competing for funding. We look forward with much anticipation to the completion of Health Sciences Facility III, which will complement the infrastructure we already have in place and will accommodate a significant expansion in our federal research support. Every effort must be made to recruit highly funded faculty. Funding is the fuel that drives the research engine; therefore extramural support will be a critical measure of the success of our research program.

The research leadership team and I will be working closely with department chairs, program and center directors, division heads and investigators to nurture an even more vibrant research enterprise and to make enhanced funding and research a priority. This will require a number of initiatives, including targeted strategy sessions, focused recruitment of key research faculty and research programs, bridging grants and internal career development awards and more. Fortunately, we also have a strong program to educate and assist junior faculty to become competitive in research design and grant writing.

A research strategic plan is being developed which will represent a synthesis of information from a 2005 leadership retreat and an upcoming ad-hoc research strategy session. This plan will outline in great detail specific steps needed to achieve our goals.

We will also enhance the research momentum and further enrich the research culture by introducing a number of colloquia to enable the academic community to interact to an even greater degree, and to make them aware of research being done on campus. These colloquia will include a Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series, which will involve the selection of outstanding faculty lecturers from across UMB and outstanding guest speakers from the scientific community in the US and abroad. In addition, we will have a Dean’s Research Forum, where faculty will present periodically to colleagues their ongoing research and discoveries, thus facilitating open discussions and opportunities for collaboration.

Key strategies for the future will include cross disciplinary collaborations, programmatic and magnet area foci, and integrating biomedical research across the continuum from the basic science through the clinical, translational and health services research categories. It is a real imperative for us to progressively build and expand our biomedical research enterprise. I challenge you to invest all your creative energies in this effort.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is poised to take its place among the elite top 20 medical institutions in the nation. I ask you to join me in working to accomplish this ambitious, but highly attainable, goal. If we are to achieve this, we must focus our individual and collective energies on meeting and surpassing the highest and most demanding standards of modern medical education, patient care and research. We must thoughtfully, but aggressively, address the barriers that limit achievement and discourage innovation. Most importantly, we must bring together world class scholars and their expertise to work collaboratively. Nothing will be more critical to reaching our goals than the intellect, perspective, energy and commitment each of you brings to the process. You can count on my vigorous support and full participation in this process.

In my next letter, I will look at our clinical mission, executed in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical System, which is exceedingly important. It is my hope that these letters will be helpful to you and will facilitate an open dialogue among all members of our academic community. We have every reason to be excited and confident about the future of the School of Medicine. Without question there are challenges ahead, but working together we will meet them.

In partnership, and in our relentless pursuit of excellence, I offer my sincerest best wishes and warm regards.

Sincerely yours,

E. Albert Reece, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, School of Medicine

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