Investments set stage for growth in biological sciences, Medical School

At a press briefing held on campus April 5, the University expanded upon the Plan for Academic Enrichment's proposals to enhance the Medical School.

The proposals were authorized by the Corporation at its February meeting.

Several components of the proposal - new laboratories and an expanded faculty - already are under way in the basic biological sciences. The April 5 briefing provided an overview of plans to expand the Medical School's capacity for strategic planning and decision making with its affiliated hospitals. The proposal will allow the dean of medicine and biological sciences, for whom a national search is under way, to exercise strategic leadership in matters related to faculty appointment and deployment in clinical departments and to work in closer collaboration with clinical department chairs and hospital leadership.

Expansion of the Program in Public Health also was discussed at the briefing.

The Academic Medical Center

From its beginning in the early 1970s, Brown Medical School has built its programs of clinical instruction and research in partnership with affiliated local hospitals. These institutional relationships - the Academic Medical Center - have been mutually dependent and beneficial, supporting both care delivery and clinical medical education.

The Plan for Academic Enrichment incorporates proposals for enhanced individual partnerships between Brown and Lifespan, Care New England, the V.A. Medical Center and Memorial Hospital. Those new partnerships would give the Academic Medical Center greater capacity for strategic planning, an enhanced ability to integrate clinical and academic programs, and greater control and accountability for program quality across all departments. Proposed changes in the partnerships include:

• each partnership will be overseen by a Senior Executive Partnership Board, including the Brown provost, dean of medicine and biological sciences, the clinical partner's CEO and an executive to be appointed by the CEO. The dean will serve as chair;
• designation of the dean of medicine and biological sciences as chief academic officer of each partnership in addition to being the chief academic officer of the division and the Medical School;
• development of a comprehensive plan for investments in teaching and research activities, for faculty recruitment that supports academic and clinical priorities, and for agreement on performance standards and assessment of each department;
• annually the affiliated hospitals and faculty practice plans will commit funds to a Dean's Academic Enhancement Fund totaling $1.5 million;
• streamlining of research administration procedures and development of a unified effort for commercialization of intellectual property.

The proposed changes in the Academic Medical Center will set the stage for growth and program enhancements within the Medical School and will strengthen the University's hand as it recruits a new dean of medicine and biological sciences.

Public Health

Brown's nationally prominent Program in Public Health is one of the fastest growing areas in the Division of Biology and Medicine. The Plan for Academic Enrichment and the division's own strategic plan call for investments that will solidify the program's growth to date and position it for significant growth in the next five to seven years.

• During the next five to seven years, the division will recruit 17 new tenure-track faculty to enhance educational and research needs within the Program in Public Health.
• The Department of Community Health, which is the academic unit in which most of the Public Health appointments will be made, will also increase from 54 to 100 full-time faculty, 27 of whom will be tenure-track.
• The graduate student body within Public Health will double to 160 (110 in the Master of Public Health and Master of Science in biostatistics professional programs, and 50 in other masters and doctoral programs).
• Undergraduate interest in the Community Health concentration will continue at a high level, with approximately 70 undergraduate concentrators per year.
• The University has committed to a dedicated building of approximately 150,000 square feet to serve as a home for the Program in Public Health, to consolidate and co-locate its constituent programs, and to accommodate future growth in faculty, student body and academic programs.

New set of strategic goals

At its Feb. 28 meeting the Corporation also approved a new set of strategic goals for the Medical School, including:

• Brown Medical School should rank in the top quartile of U.S. medical schools;
• The major residencies of Brown Medical School should rank in the top 20 nationally;
• Brown Medical School and Program in Public Health should plan to increase external research support by 75 percent;
• Brown Medical School should expand the current size of its student body by roughly a third, to 400 students;
• Brown Medical School should undertake a pilot project, beginning in fall 2005, to admit an additional eight to 10 medical students from standard four-year pre-medical undergraduate programs. (This proposal was approved by faculty at their April meeting);
• Brown Medical School should design a new integrated curriculum.

During the next five years, the dean of medicine and biological sciences will receive an additional $12.5 million for academic purposes, in addition to more than $130 million in capital investments already under way.