Bringing the future home

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Thomas J. Lawley, MD
Dean, Emory University School of Medicine

When I look at the faces of students like those in the photo above, I feel incredibly optimistic about the future of medicine, but I also share with faculty a keen sense of obligation to help these students make the most of their learning to solve problems and change things for the better. We have spent the better part of two years completely revising our medical curriculum to produce the kind of physician leaders the world so badly needs. The new program will begin in the fall of 2007, following the opening of a new education building designed to make this curriculum come to life, taking advantage of new technologies and providing space where faculty and students can interact (and learn and teach) more routinely and informally.

I am excited about progress in other areas too. Emory medical faculty have never been more productive or successful in their quest for discoveries to improve health. Emory is one of the fastest growing schools in research funding in the nation and ranked 19th in funding from the National Institutes of Health this year, with 13 departments in the top 20. Several major grants established new programs in cancer nanotechnology, Alzheimer's disease, global vaccines, and molecular screening to develop new drugs, among others.

This achievement in research is all the more remarkable given the astounding quantity (and quality!) of patient services that faculty provide: more than 3.3 million patient visits annually within the broad reaches of Emory Healthcare and the public and private hospitals that these physicians serve. Many of their services are provided nowhere elsewhere in Atlanta, and numerous advances—in drugs for immune tolerance and treatment for traumatic brain injury, for example—were achieved through clinical and translational research.

I applaud the faculty and staff whose vision, dedication, talent, and sheer hard work made this past year so successful and the future so full of promise. Here at Emory, we're bringing the future home.

Thomas J. Lawley MD

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