The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
The University of Texas Medical School at HoustonThe University of Texas Medical School at Houston		 The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Jan. 9, 2009 | from the Office of Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo

Distributed on Fridays via e-mail to all Medical School employees, students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows, UT 2 Me is Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo's weekly update of news and items of interest. He also welcomes feedback through this two-way communication.

Hello,
Happy New Year! I hope each of you had a wonderful holiday and are ready for a great new year. I know you have probably made your New Year’s resolutions, and so have I – for each area of our mission:

Education

  • Continue the scrutiny of our curriculum, reviewing how and what we teach so that we may best prepare our students to become the caring, knowledgeable physicians we expect.
  • Finalize guidelines and criteria for our new scholarly concentrations and preceptorship programs. I anticipate much progress to be made in these areas this year.
  • Fairly recognize, compensate, and incentivize those involved with our teaching mission.
  • Focus on technology in education, which will be supported by a new position in Dr. Patricia Butler’s office for technical development as it relates to education.
  • Seek funding for scholarships for deserving students. Indeed, robust philanthropic efforts are key for the growth of all areas of our mission.
  • Assess the needs and growth of our residency programs as we look to help alleviate physician specialty shortages.
  • Address resident issues, especially duty-hour violations, which appeared in the recent ACGME site visit report.
  • Evaluate the possibility of collaborative educational programs with UTMB due to the affects of Hurricane Ike.
  • Improve communication between the student body and the Dean’s Office through the housestaff senate.

Research

  • Work to continue recruiting talented and innovative investigators in our new research building. This successful process already has resulted in $60M in new NIH-funded research for the Medical School.
  • Continue supporting bridging grants funds, just-missed grants, and collaborative grants, including program project grants.
  • Increase our research expenditures to $200M/year in the next 3-5 years through a controlled growth of both our clinical and basic science departments.  We are currently at $120M per year.
  • Encourage the career development of our faculty and post-docs.
  • Determine how much we can grow in research – which is set by financial resources and infrastructure limitations. I am in discussions with President Larry Kaiser to seek access to established or new space for research in the Texas Medical Center and/or on the South Campus once our new building is completely occupied.

Clinical

  • Continue to support the growth of the group practice, UT Physicians – this is critical for the success of our mission.
  • Recruit strong leaders for the remaining three clinical chair positions – Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
  • Continue to align our strategic and financial agenda with Memorial Hermann and the Harris County Hospital District.
  • Engage UT faculty in the decision-making process at our two clinical partner institutions.
  • Aggressively seek opportunities for clinical growth and explore the expansion of a primary care network in the city.
  • Support the chairs in their roles to be leaders in strategic and quality initiatives and driving the professional development of their faculty.
  • Acknowledge and value the role of housestaff – encourage their involvement in decision-making.
  • Create a change in leadership structure by establishing a newly developed physician division.
  • Evaluate the anticipated recommendation from the revenue cycle committee regarding a new clinical billing structure. The recommendation, to be submitted by Kevin Dillon and Andrew Casas to McKesson, will involve all facets of the billing procedure.
  • Improve patient access to UT Physicians through a new patient navigation structure. This special program will soon be announced and be available to all employees.
  • Establish a new marketing team to tell the story of our strong clinical programs.
  • Encourage all employees to be responsible for the patient experience and create new initiatives to improve our clinical services.

If I missed anything, don’t worry, we’re probably working on it! I am thankful to you and all of the terrific teams whose hard work has gotten us to where we are today. I have complete faith and trust in the future of our school, we have an outstanding team of administrators who care about the school and a new strong leader in our president. We are very fortunate to be in a stable, growing institution. I am certain together we will make it a fantastic 2009!

Have a great weekend,

 
Giuseppe
 

For archives of this newsletter, visit the Dean's Communications homepage.