Jay R. Lieberman, M.D.

Yusuf Khan, Ph.D.

I am proud to announce that the Health Center was the only organization in the country to receive two of the nine 2010 research grants awarded by the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation. The MTF is the nation’s largest tissue bank that connects donors with surgeons and transplant recipients. As a non-profit service organization, MTF is dedicated to providing quality tissue through a commitment to excellence in education, research, recovery and care for recipients, donors and their families.

Both of our recipients are colleagues of mine in the New England Musculoskeletal Institute. Jay R. Lieberman, M.D., director of the New England Musculoskeletal Institute is the recipient of the J.R. Neff Award, and Yusuf Khan, Ph.D., Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Chemical, Materials, and Biomolecular Engineering at UConn Storrs, has received the Peer Review – Junior Investigator award.

Congratulations to both!]]> http://libraryweb.uchc.edu/vp/archives/2010/03/health_center_a.html http://libraryweb.uchc.edu/vp/archives/2010/03/health_center_a.html Research Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:39:08 -0500 March 9 was a wonderful day in the history of the UConn Health Center. It was an honor for me to participate in the news conference led by Governor M. Jodi Rell who unveiled a proposal to reinvigorate the John Dempsey Hospital and create an innovate network with our regional hospital-partners. To learn more visit: http://today.uchc.edu.

Dr. Pramod Srivastava, Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research Honoree.

Over the past few weeks, I had the privilege of attending several important and festive events in the community on behalf of the Health Center.

In early February was "The Taste of History," a celebration of African American culture, sponsored by the Amistad Center and held at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford. Approximately 300 people attended this event which featured excellent samplings from local restaurants, music and of course, a stunning art collection.

Interspersed with the tasting was a table staffed by Health Center experts who offered advice and information about nutrition and healthy living. Our experts included cardiologist Dr. Anjenette Ferris and nutritionists Deb Downes and Jean Kostak. They did a great job answering questions and helping people brave the buffet that night!

I was delighted that other leaders from the Health Center attended the event as well. This included Dr. Marja Hurley, director of the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative, and Dr. Biree Andemariam, who is part of a new, multidisciplinary program to provide complete care for adults with sickle cell disease.

There was a strong sense of celebration that evening. It made me realize how the Amistad Center and the Health Center share so many common values and goals. We are both dedicated to education, humanism, and helping the community achieve a deeper understanding of our diverse American experience. And like the Amistad Center, we are attuned to our history and at the same time, focused on the future and committed to improving lives on many levels. For those of you who have not visited the Amistad Center, I encourage you to do so.

On the eve of Valentine's Day, my wife and I attended the annual ball to benefit the Lea's Foundation for Leukemia Research. Through the years, the Lea's Foundation has raised more than $2 million and many of those dollars have come back to the Health Center to support research and clinical care, most notably through the Lea's Foundation Center for Hematologic Disorders, which is part of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The evening was also a great source of pride for the Health Center. The honoree was Dr. Pramod Srivastava, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Immunology and Director of the Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Infectious Diseases, and an internationally recognized pioneer in cancer vaccine research. Professor Srivastava gave an inspiring speech about the future of medical care.

The Lea's Foundation also thanked our School of Medicine and the ongoing commitment of our students to raise money for the Lea's Foundation every summer through the Coast to Coast for a Cure cross country bike treks. I'll have a separate communication thanking our students who will bike around the country this summer for this great cause.

Saying a few words at the "The Taste of History."

My wife Cynthia and I with the 2010 Coast to Coast for a Cure Riders. Left to right: Alex Ocampo, Arturo Montano and Loreen Fournier.

I enjoyed taking part in the customs and traditions of the Chinese. I am also very proud to be part of an organization that is rich in diversity and culture.

Cutting the cake at the Chinese New Year celebration are: (left to right) Ren-He Xu, Cato T. Laurencin, Marc Lalande and Carolyn Lyle

The UConn Health Center's New England Musculoskeletal Institute has been named a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery as well as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement. Logo courtesy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Connecticut.

I am proud to announce that the New England Musculoskeletal Institute has been designated as both a Blue Distinction Center® for Spine Surgery and Knee and Hip Replacement by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut. Blue Distinction® is a designation awarded by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality healthcare. The designation is based on rigorous, evidence-based, objective selection criteria established in collaboration with expert physicians' and medical organizations' recommendations. Its goal is to help consumers find quality specialty care on a consistent basis, while enabling and encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the overall quality and delivery of care nationwide.

The designation affirms the high-quality, expertise care that is delivered by the providers at the New England Musculoskeletal Institute every day. It also demonstrates the Health Center’s commitment to providing quality care and better overall patient outcomes particularly for knee and hip replacement procedures and spine surgery.

Sincere congratulations. What a team!

Dr. Hurley is an accomplished endocrinologist, biomedical researcher, professor of medicine and an associate dean with both the School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine. For more than two decades, she has led the Health Center’s widely recognized Health Career Opportunity Programs and has helped hundreds of students from underrepresented minorities successfully pursue careers in medicine, dentistry and other health professions.

Today, the health careers program, known as the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative, is an umbrella of innovative educational programs that reaches out to talented students from middle school, high school, college and graduate levels. Efforts are bolstered by mentoring and teaching support from UConn Health Center faculty in all disciplines including biomedical research, dentistry and clinical care.

In all aspects of her career, Dr. Hurley has been an exemplary role model, leader and innovator. She was joined by her husband and many colleagues Wednesday night when the award was announced. On behalf of the entire Health Center community, I’m delighted to extend my congratulations as well.

• Read more about the 2010 Women of Innovation Awards

As a force dedicated to the betterment of people, you have shown, time and again, your compassion and empathy for our community and our world, including recent response efforts to help the people of Haiti. Later today, President Hogan and I will send messages with additional information about how we can help the recovery effort.

Looking back, last year presented many challenges and successes. While our aspiration to join the ranks of the nation’s top tier academic medical centers would have been catalyzed by the proposed partnership with Hartford Healthcare Corp, it never relied on its successful completion. Looking forward, we are initiating new strategic and capital planning processes to establish new paths forward to achieving that goal.

We have many reasons to be hopeful. One of the most encouraging signs has been the improved financial picture we have seen in the last six months. This is a testament to your hard work and the willingness of our elected officials to invest in the Health Center. While I remain cautious in my optimism, our financial projections suggest that we will finish this fiscal year on budget. John Biancamano, our Chief Financial Officer, and his team deserve a lot of credit for helping to stabilize our finances.

At the end of last year, our hospital received a very favorable site visit by the Joint Commission. We are looking forward to the announcement of the survey results in the next few months. This, coupled with the recent news of the Department of Public Health’s decision to end our probationary status one year early, culminates a year-long effort by our hospital management team and hospital staff to improve quality and strengthen patient safety throughout the Health Center. I want to express my appreciation to Dr. Mike Summerer, the Hospital Director; Ms. Ellen Leone, AVP and Director of Nursing; and Ann Marie Capo, AVP for Quality Programs for leading this effort and the many, many individuals who devoted time and effort to bring about this success.

In addition, our research enterprise is experiencing record levels of new grant awards thanks to the ARRA program and our exceptional faculty. A number of major institutional grants have received very strong scores, and I hope to announce the awards soon. I need to commend Dr. Marc Lalande, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and our outstanding staff at the Office of Sponsored Programs lead by Dana Carroll. Looking to the future, it is clear we must continue to grow our research base and we have begun several new searches for basic science faculty in accordance with the research strategic plan of the Research Council.

Our academic mission continues to flourish. The School of Dental Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Monty MacNeil, experienced a very successful re-accreditation site visit during the past year. We believe we will continue that success later this month when the School of Medicine will undergo its seven-year LCME re-accreditation visit. Thanks to the careful planning and vision of many academic leaders, including Drs. Casey Jacob and Bruce Koeppen, we feel ready for this visit.

The Health Center is well positioned, on all fronts, for a year of rapid movement and continued success. While many challenges remain, I am convinced that becoming a top tier health center is, in fact, attainable. I look forward to working with you on many of these initiatives. Together, we will go far.

Mentoring aspiring physicians and researchers continues to be one of the most gratifying aspects of my career. I accepted the Presidential Award of Excellence on behalf of all the students I have had the privilege of mentoring through the years.

• President Obama Honors Outstanding Teachers and Mentors at White House
• Honoring Educators in Math and Science
• UConn Dean Gets Presidential Award
• UConn’s Laurencin Honored at White House

The following link takes you to a side-by-side comparison of the two bills. I hope you will find it helpful. As the debate continues, it is important for all of us in healthcare to understand the scope of reach of the proposed bills.

• Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals (PDF)

• Read the Article (PDF)

I’m proud to say the connection is through a former colleague of mine, Robert (Bobby) Satcher, Jr., Ph.D., M.D., who worked in my lab at MIT. Dr. Satcher, who is not only an astronaut but also an orthopaedic surgeon and distinguished researcher, agreed to bring the UConn flag on the Atlantis’ current trip.

On November 16, I had the great honor of watching Bobby and the other astronauts as the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center. I was joined by longtime friends and benefactors of the Health Center, Bess and Michael Economos, who are also the founders of the Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research. It was an incredible experience and a moment of pride for my friend and former colleague.

As for the UConn flag, I will let you know when it returns to Farmington.

As you may recall, creation of the Academic Plan followed Provost Nicholls’ call for all Schools within the University to develop plans that were modeled on the structure and format of the University's Academic Plan.

• View the Academic Plan (PDF)

I’m grateful to all for a respectful and thoughtful campaign. Let’s commit to work together for the common good for our institution so we can continue to move our institution toward top tier status, toward being a destination place for healthcare, and toward being a place that is an engine for growth and prosperity not just for ourselves, but for our region and our state.

Let's proceed. Thanks.

Ice cream from the UConn Dairy Bar will be provided by the UConn Foundation/Office of Development and Alumni Relations and served on a first-come, first-served basis. In addition, there will be a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to the Max Restaurant Group, and brief remarks at 1:30 p.m. The Storrs campus will also celebrate the campaign kickoff on Friday with a free ice cream social at 12:30 p.m. at Fairfield Way. Other events will follow throughout the year. I hope that you will be able to join us as we launch this campaign at the UConn Health Center.

In late June, I charged a small committee composed of Dr. Adam Silverman, Dr. Marja Hurley, Dr. Bruce Koeppen, Dr. Marc Lalande, Charles Huntington, Carolyn Lyle and Dr. Gerry Maxwell to compose a draft framework of a plan for the School of Medicine that would subsequently go through the following review process:

1) Initial review and changes by elected governance of the School of Medicine (Councils and the Oversight Committee)

2) Review by the faculty of the School of Medicine with changes submitted to the respective SOM Councils

3) Final review by the School of Medicine Councils

The first step of the process has recently been completed. I encourage you to review the second draft of the School of Medicine Academic Plan that incorporates initial comments from Council members. I would also encourage you to review the UConn Academic Plan to appreciate the context and the very specific format required. Please take a look at the University Plan before you read the School of Medicine draft.

Please provide suggestions and comments on this draft to the respective Councils and send a copy to Dr. Maxwell at gmaxwell@uchc.edu. Comments and suggestions are appreciated and should be forwarded by September 9.

Your participation and input in this process is very important! This document focuses on our vision and is the starting point for our strategic planning processes as we move forward. Please be aware that this is an academic plan that covers education and research only. Clinical matters will be dealt with in a separate document.

Thank you.

• School of Medicine Academic Plan (PDF)
• UConn Academic Plan (PDF)