It is a tradition of sorts in the summer issue of The Bulletin to use this space to reflect upon the academic year just completed, its accomplishments and challenges.

There was good news. As you may know, in FY96 our total grant and contract awards surpassed the $100 million mark for the first time in our 190-year history, reaching $102,900,000. The University of Maryland School of Medicine has always enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for educating and training outstanding clinicians; we are now equally well-known as a premier research institution. We continue to rank in the top 20 percent of public medical schools in direct National Institutes of Health (NIH) and total research funding and in the top 25 percent of all medical schools. We maintained our No. 13 position in NIH funding for public medical schools and, when considering only direct cost awards, increased our rank to 28 among all 125 medical schools.

Also regarding NIH funding, four of our departments ranked in the top 20 of all medical schools -- biochemistry and molecular biology; epidemiology and preventive medicine; neurology; and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. Five departments ranked in the top 10 among public institutions -- biochemistry and molecular biology; epidemiology and preventive medicine; neurology; physiology; and psychiatry. Through the past four years, our total grant funding in basic science departments increased by about 10 percent, clinical science departments by 22 percent and allied health by 350 percent.

As I write this message, we are on a pace to finish approximately 21 percent ahead of our total research awards last fiscal year. This is remarkable considering the relative decline of dollars for a growing pool of investigators. We are also pleased to report the dramatic increase in research funding obtained by our faculty at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. Funding increased from $3 million in 1992 to more than $11 million in 1996, ranking first in the country’s VA health care system.

Our already successful Organized Research Center (ORC) in Health Policy and Health Services Research was joined by another ORC: the Organized Research Center for the Genetics of Asthma and Complex Diseases will focus on determining the genetic origins of such health problems as asthma, hypertension, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We also created a Program in Human Health and the Environment, which will investigate how environmental hazards play a role in disease, particularly among vulnerable populations. All three of these programs bring to bear the expertise of researchers across multiple disciplines. Collaboration will be the key to success in these ventures, making it easier to obtain answers and funding.

We are in the third year of our revised curriculum, and the first of requiring students to have laptop computers. In renovated Howard Hall space, a new computer lab can accommodate up to 180 students simultaneously. Students can plug their laptops into the lab’s personal computers and obtain information on courses and assignments and access slides and visuals. We are pleased with the results of our new curriculum and our students and faculty appear to be doing well.

During the past year, we established ourselves as leaders in the rapidly evolving field of telemedicine. We are currently planning or piloting research and clinical care programs in teleradiology, telepathology, telecardiology, teledermatology, telepsychiatry and trauma triage. Our Organized Research Center in Health Policy and Health Services Research received a contract from the state Office of Rural Health to conduct an inventory of the state’s telemedicine projects and capabilities.

We signed collaborative agreements with the Medical University of Southern Africa and the Republic of the Marshall Islands to provide public health evaluation and infrastructure, telemedicine and distance learning consultation and faculty, student and research exchange programs.

The Baltimore Ravens selected us to provide comprehensive medical care for its players, a contract that will be the basis for the creation of a new sports medicine program. We enhanced our services to women and children with the recruitment of Dr. Carl Weiner, an outstanding new chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and a renowned expert in maternal-fetal medicine.

There was sobering news, as well. Our clinical practice plan income has been affected by competition from managed care organizations. We depend upon that income to support undergraduate and graduate medical education, research and faculty development. Unless we begin to conduct business more as a managed care organization ourselves, we will not be able to sustain the progress we have made. New relationships must be developed with hospitals, referring physicians and insurers to maintain the level of excellence we have outlined in our strategic plan. Some of those new relationships, which you will read about in future issues of The Bulletin, have already been formed, and we will continue to pursue them, initiating change before we can only respond to it.

Last year was one of tremendous change and I expect the next one will be, too. I hope we can count on your support in the future as in the past.