Message from the Dean
A Strategy That Succeeds
The Indiana Statewide Medical Education model grew from a strategy
to increase the number of physicians available to all Hoosiers through
relationship-building. By enlisting community physicians as student
mentors in cities hosting the School’s eight medical education
centers, state and university leaders saw a way to promote the retention
of graduates as community physicians.
In partnership with local communities, we are using this same statewide
model to develop our research resources in support of life sciences
initiatives. By expanding their research portfolios, the centers
can advance health care through discovery with their community partners.
By bringing research support into their communities, the centers
can create new jobs and serve as economic stimuli to their regions.
The Northwest Center has just completed a new facility, and two
others are in the process of building new facilities that will provide
space for both medical education and research. Our new medical education
center in South Bend – to open next fall – is a collaborative
effort with the University of Notre Dame.
In addition to classrooms and basic research laboratories for the
Center for Medical Education, the South Bend site will house Notre
Dame’s W.M. Keck Center for Transgene Research. The Keck Center
promises great opportunities for scientists in basic and applied
research related to genetically modified plants and animals.
In Fort Wayne, we soon will begin construction of a new medical
education center. Following the state legislature’s approval
of this project during the 2003-04 session, we began plans for 30,000
square feet of educational space that also will accommodate growth
in cardiovascular, neuroscience and natural products research.
Another building that will advance the life sciences in Indiana
was just completed in Gary, where the medical education portion
of the Northwest Center for Professional Education/Medical Education
Building just opened. The second building phase, now under way,
includes facilities for teaching nursing, dentistry and other allied
health sciences.
In Bloomington, IU is building the Multidisciplinary Science Center
to enhance opportunity for collaborations with the School of Medicine.
This facility will allow IU to recruit more basic scientists, providing
a tremendous opportunity for medical students and in particular
for those also working on research doctoral degrees. This effort
has been made possible through the support of the Lilly Endowment
and the Simon family, which funded Simon Hall, a part of the new
center.
It is gratifying for many that a program started over thirty years
ago as a strategy to provide more physicians to Indiana now also
serves as a foundation on which the state can create a life sciences
economy. The School will not only continue to be integral to the
health of Indiana’s citizens but also to its economic health.
D. Craig Brater, MD
Dean and Walter J. Daly Professor
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