Board of Visitors Dinner
December 7, 2007
I would like to begin
my remarks this evening by thanking you for what you do on behalf of the
Medical University. Our Trustees provide countless hours of service to
this institution each year. On a personal level, I would like to express
my appreciation for your guidance and support throughout my first year
in office. As the members of the Board of Visitors complete their appointments
tonight, we also extend our gratitude to you. You help to give us a voice
throughout the State of South Carolina, spreading our story to your friends
and neighbors. As you complete your term of service, we hope that you
will remain part of our extended family. Before proceeding further, I
would also like to pause to thank my wife, Leah. There is no way that
I could have made it through the past year without her understanding and
support, and for this I am grateful beyond words.
On the occasion of
this dinner, it has become a tradition for the President to deliver a
brief State of the University address. I am pleased to carry this tradition
forward by providing you with a quick sampling of the dominant themes
on our campus today. Hopefully, this overview will serve as more than
a simple recitation of accomplishments. My hope is that I can capture
for you a flavor of the values and aspirations that drive our daily pursuits.
Above all else, we
exist to educate the next generation of health care providers and investigators
for our State and nation. We seek out the best and brightest students
from across South Carolina, but we are looking for more than intellect.
We want students who we believe will demonstrate the caring and compassion
that are the hallmarks of our disciplines.
That we have met with
success is demonstrated by the growing recognition of our educational
offerings. National rankings have reconfirmed a top 10 position for our
Nurse Midwifery program and a top 20 slot for our Occupational Therapy
program. This year, our College of Pharmacy was ranked for the first time
as number 22 out of over 85 schools nationally. The graduates from our
College of Dental Medicine finished fifth nationally out of over 50 dental
schools on the national board examination. These honors demonstrate the
sustained high caliber of our faculty and students.
That we have succeeded
in selecting students with hearts as well as minds is well demonstrated
by the more than 10,000 hours of volunteer service that they contribute
each year. Under faculty supervision, the students also staff a free clinic
at Crisis Ministries. In addition, the College of Medicine Charity Ball
raised a record $25,000 this year, which was distributed to four community-based
organizations. This is an amazing commitment when you realize that 90%
of our students are on financial aid.
As we look to the
future, one of the biggest challenges for our educational programs is
our aging physical plant. A major step forward is the commitment to construct
the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. This state-of-the-art
educational center will be funded by a combination of public and private
funds. This past year, we raised half of the goal for private funding
and received a third of the goal for public support.
In our laboratories,
we are driven by a passion to advance knowledge for the improvement of
health and the prevention of illness. Whether the topic is understanding
congestive heart failure, basic mechanisms of drug addiction, the abnormal
behavior of cancer cells, imaging of the brain, or the genetic basis of
inherited diseases, investigators at the Medical University are leading
in scientific discoveries. Our ability to expand this effort will be enhanced
by the construction of our next major research facility - the Children’s
Research Institute. Public funding for this effort has been obtained and
we have launched a campaign for private fund-raising. The building is
under design, with construction to begin in the near future.
As we are bursting
at the seams in our current space, we continue to set records in research
funding, this past year exceeding $113 million in outside support. The
economic impact of our research is felt profoundly in the Lowcountry and
more generally in South Carolina. It is estimated that by the year 2003,
over 5,000 jobs will be attributable to research at the Medical University.
As South Carolina prepares for the technologically–oriented industry
that will emerge in the 21st century, the capabilities of the state’s
three research universities will be fundamental to this progress. Together
with Clemson and the University of South Carolina, we will train the workforce
needed for these companies. Intellectual property developed on our campuses
will be transferred for commercial application through start-up companies.
At the Medical University, already eight new companies have been spawned
by our research efforts. We look forward to partnering with our sister
research universities to build even stronger collaborations in the future.
To many citizens of
our state, however, we are best known for the specialized health care
that we provide. The high reputation of our clinical services was demonstrated
again by a Consumer Choice Award based upon household surveys of preferences
for health care providers. The Digestive Diseases Center was selected
as a leader in its field by a respected publication. The Children’s
Hospital also was ranked by a national publication as one of the top ten
in the country. These honors reflect the high regard with which both our
patients and our professional colleagues hold our health care services.
This past year, we
received statutory approval for the new hospital authority and proceeded
successfully toward its implementation. We completed the first phase of
renovation of our operating rooms and we are preparing to further upgrade
our medical center facilities. The expansion of the Hollings Cancer Center,
which will result in a doubling of both patient care and research space,
is funded fully and presently is under design for construction.
I would like to conclude
with two recent examples that symbolize for me what we are striving to
achieve. The first is a research study that was just launched. It grew
out of the work of an investigator in the Department of Pediatrics who
observed that when treated with certain cholesterol lowering drugs called
statins, laboratory animals with symptoms of multiple sclerosis showed
dramatic improvement. Now whether this same benefit will occur in humans
is unknown, but it is a terribly exciting prospect since there is no known
effective treatment for multiple sclerosis. Our clinical investigators
persuaded the manufacturer of one of these statin drugs to fund a clinical
trial of this question. We are coordinating that study, which also is
being conducted in two leading multiple sclerosis centers – Yale
University and the University of Colorado. Each center will enroll only
10 patients initially.
Within days of announcing
the trial, over 350 prospective patients contacted us about participating
here. Some volunteered to move across the country to live in Charleston
for the six months that it would take to complete the study. This is an
extraordinary example of a basic research finding in a laboratory being
translated into potential clinical application on our campus.
Finally, let me tell
you about a very special little four-year-old girl from Landrum with liver
failure. Without a liver transplant, she would surely die, but there are
few donated organs, and even fewer that would be a good match. Her father
stepped in by donating a lobe of his liver, thus becoming the first living
donor for a liver transplant in South Carolina, and one of a small number
in the country. I am happy to report that a month after surgery, both
father and daughter are doing well. Through the miracle of this extraordinary
surgery, a little girl has a new lease on life.
It is stories such
as these that motivate and inspire us every day. We are privileged to
work in a place where prayers are answered and dreams come true. The next
great discovery is just around the corner and we thank you for helping
us get there.
The entire Medical
University family joins me in wishing you and yours a happy and healthy
holiday season. |
