Umkc Executive Director of Continuing Education
Mo Med. 2012 Sep-Oct; 109(5): 348–350.
UMKC School of Medicine 40 Years of Excellence
The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine is concluding the year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of opening in 1971. The opening of this new medical school followed three decades of discussion and planning by the community for a medical school in Kansas City, MO. The efforts picked up momentum in the late 1950s and early 1960s during a time when there was a prediction of a national shortage of 50,000 physicians. These efforts included public-private partnerships among the business community, the philanthropic community, the local physicians, the public (through elected and appointed officials) and the University of Missouri System. The story of the founding and the impact of the new UMKC medical school is one of collective vision and partnership leading to lasting value in the form of an academic medical center as an "anchor" institution in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo.
The Vision
Although there had been discussions for a new medical school for some time, the vision was eloquently articulated in 1961 when Homer Wadsworth, the executive director and president of the Kansas City Association of Trusts and Foundations, wrote a letter to the city manager stating, "If we can create a stable, properly financed, and efficient operation of the General Hospital, and if we can assure medical school levels of training through affiliation with the University of Missouri, it is quite inevitable that a new medical school will arise from this effort."
The goals of this vision were to create an academic medical center in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo., to enhance the care of the medically underserved, provide excellent medical education for physicians and other health care providers, bring economic development to the urban core, and ultimately develop clinical research to improve care. Major accomplishments in the early 1960s included the transfer of the governance of General Hospital to a private, not-for-profit board (now Truman Medical Center), the donation of land on Hospital Hill by the city for the academic medical center, and the conversion of the University of Kansas City from a private university to the University of Missouri-Kansas City as a member of the University of Missouri System. The University of Missouri in Columbia was very supportive of the new medical school, especially Dr. Vernon Wilson, the dean of the medical school in Columbia. He appointed Dr. Richardson K. Noback, an experienced medical education innovator in 1963, first as a consultant, and then as Executive Medical Director of the new medical center and Associate Dean for the new medical school. Dr. Noback later became the founding dean of the new UMKC medical school in 1971 after final approval of the state for the school. Dr. E. Grey Dimond was appointed in 1968 as consultant on health affairs to the UMKC Chancellor and charged with development of the new curriculum for the new medical school. This innovative curriculum, The Academic Plan1, still guides the curriculum and governance of the UMKC School of Medicine. Dr. Dimond's history of the founding of the school is articulated in his book, Take Wing!2 The program admits the majority of students out of high school into a six-year, combined baccalaureate/MD program. Hallmarks of the program are longitudinal mentoring of students in small groups called "docent teams," early and continuous patient contact, integration of humanities and social sciences with basic and clinical science, and team based care.
The Partnerships
The success in founding a new medical school in Kansas City was based on the partnership of public and private interests. Many groups and individuals contributed in the planning, the recruitment of resources, and the development of the medical education program. For example, land was contributed by the city; over $8 million in federal funding supported the construction of the medical school building; community physicians contributed financially and taught in the new curriculum; General Hospital (now Truman Medical Center), Children's Mercy Hospital and Western Missouri Mental Health (now the Center for Behavioral Medicine) became the first major teaching affiliates; the University of Missouri-Kansas City relocated it Schools of Dentistry and Pharmacy from other locations and opened a School of Nursing on Hospital Hill. The business community participated in leadership with Nathan Stark, the President of Hallmark Cards serving as the first chair of the new medical center board. The philanthropic community contributed then and now to the new School of Medicine and the hospitals growing on Hospital Hill. The elected officials at the state supported the new School through voting for approval in 1971. The public continues to support the mission of the academic medical center as a whole through the voting for approval of the Health Levy that supports the safety net mission for Jackson County residents at both Truman Medical Center and Children's Mercy Hospital. Forty years after its founding, the UMKC School of Medicine remains tightly connected to the community and continues to rely on key partnerships for its medical education mission. The school now as five major affiliated hospitals in the urban core of Kansas City, including St. Luke's Hospital, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Research Medical Center in addition to Truman Medical Center, Children's Mercy Hospital, and the Center for Behavioral Medicine. Collectively, these affiliated hospitals admit approximately 75,000 patients annually and staff approximately 2,000 beds. The quality of these hospitals for patient care and for medical education is exceptional.
The Lasting Value
Academic medical centers are increasingly recognized as "anchor" institutions in the urban core of the cities where they are located. They not only provide important educational programs to educate and train physicians and other health care professionals for the community, but also provide safety net clinical care for underserved patients, cutting edge medical expertise through research and advanced clinical care, and economic development. The annual revenues of the UMKC School of Medicine and its hospital affiliates are over $3.5 billion, and exceed $1.5 billion just on Hospital Hill. The University of Missouri-Kansas City, St. Luke's Hospital, Research Medical Center, and Truman Medical Center are all in the top 15 largest employers in Kansas City (Kansas City Business Journal Annual Book of Lists). The vision of the planners to develop a vibrant academic medical community in the core of Kansas City, MO has certainly been met.
Academic medical centers boost their communities through research that leads to discoveries and application of new knowledge to the health of humans, as well as the accompanying economic development that result from research investments. Our faculty are actively engaged in research and publish over 500 journal articles, book chapters and books annually. Their research directly impacts patient care in chronic diseases, women and children's health, neurosciences, injury prevention and treatment, etc. The total research expenditures annually are well over $20 million, with over half in federal funding. Based on the recently published report by Trip Umbach by the Association of American Medical Colleges3, each $1 of research investment results in $2.6 in additional economic development in local communities. Thus, the economic impact of just the federally funded research by UMKC School of Medicine faculty is over $45 million annually.
However, above all, the lasting value of the UMKC School of Medicine is in its mission to provide excellent physicians for the region. We are meeting this mission and have now graduated over 3,000 physicians in our 40 years, and nearly half currently practice in the region. We have over 500 residents and fellows in over 40 graduate medical education programs. Nearly half of the graduates each year of these programs also stay in the region to practice medicine. The physicians who graduate from our program are particularly skilled in team based care, communications, and clinical care, which are skills increasingly valued in the era of health care reform. Our internal and national surveys indicate students are highly satisfied with their educational experience, and our outcomes data demonstrate that they do well in academic achievement in terms of performance on standardized examinations, residency program evaluations, and ability to match into residency programs locally and across the country. They can and do excel in many ways.
Some of the exemplary graduates of our program are the alumni recipients of the annual E. Grey Dimond Take Wing Award and the annual Alumni Achievement Awards. The Take Wing Award winners and the annual Alumni Achievement Award winners include graduates who are department chairs and section chiefs in medical schools, who are national leaders in research, who develop local and international service missions, who innovate and lead in clinical care, and who are of the highest level of professionalism. The 2012 Take Wing Award winner is Mary Anne Jackson, MD (UMKC '78). She is on our UMKC faculty as Professor and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's Mercy Hospital. She serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics' Red Book Committee on Infectious Diseases, is an award winning educator and is nationally recognized for her research on immunizations. The 2012 UMKC School of Medicine Alumni Achievement Award winner is Alexander Norbash, MD (UMKC '86), who is Professor and Chair of Radiology at Boston University and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. He is an innovator in endovascular neurologic interventions and was among the first clinicians to develop the technology for stenting carotid arteries. The overall 2012 UMKC Alumnus of the Year was a School of Medicine graduate, Catherine Spong, MD, (MD '91) who is the chief of Pregnancy and Perinatology at the National Institutes of Health. She is considered by her peers as one of the most influential women in obstetrics and gynecology today. She oversees a $100 million budget for research grants and is the program scientist for the Maternal Fetal Medicine Units network.
For those who would like to know more about our history and our future, I invite readers to visit our website to view the 40th anniversary web page (www.med.umkc.edu/40/). As we close our celebration of 40 years medical education, we thank all who have been supporters of the school to found the school and continue to do so for the ongoing success of the school. Our supporters include the University of Missouri System, our elected officials, our hospital affiliates, the public, the business community, our students, our staff, our faculty, our alumni, and others. I congratulate all our graduates of the school as we look forward to continuing to educate and train outstanding physicians. The alumni award winners for 2012 highlighted above are just three of over 3,000 graduates in 40 years. We are proud of them and all our graduates. We appreciate being part of our community and look forward our partnership with the community to educate the physicians of the future.
Biography
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Betty M. Drees, MD, MSMA member since 2000, is Dean and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine.
Contact: ude.ckmu@BseerD
References
2. Grey Dimond E., MD . Take Wing!: Interesting things that happened on my way to school. Diastole-Hospital Hill, Inc; Kansas City, MO: 2005. Copies available in the UMKC Miller Nichols Library and by order from Diastole, 2501 Holmes, Kansas City, MO 64108. [Google Scholar]
3. The Economic Impact of Publicly Funded Research Conducted by AAMC-Member Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals. A Report Prepared for the AAMC by Tripp Umbach. Association of American Medical Colleges; Washington, DC: Nov, 2011. [Google Scholar]
Articles from Missouri Medicine are provided here courtesy of Missouri State Medical Association
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179754/
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