Recent Accomplishments
Michael M. E. Johns,
Chancellor, Emory University
Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, Emeritus
2006-2007
National Presence
Emory is making headlines with recent NIH designations. The NIH named Emory's HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit as a primary site in both the treatment and vaccine sections of its premier clinical trials networks. The NIH also chose Emory as one of six new Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, which will expand and improve surveillance of seasonal and avian flu and determine how flu viruses mutate to infect different species. Along with Georgia Tech and the Medical College of Georgia, Emory is a partner in the third NIH-funded nanomedicine/nanotechnology center in Georgia in less than two years. Other major NIH investments include funds to Yerkes to compare cognitive aging in human and nonhuman primates and support of research into new clues about genome variations in schizophrenia.
New Faces
Each of the health professions schools in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) has recruited and retained world-class faculty, including key people in cancer, diabetes, nursing, and transplant. The nursing school created two new associate dean positions to support education and research and a new distinguished professor of nursing and interdisciplinary science. Emory Healthcare hired a chief nursing officer and the Winship Cancer Institute, a new director. Five new faculty were named Georgia Cancer Coalition Scholars, and a new Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Alzheimer's disease is coming in July.
Front and Center
In a push to provide national leadership in clinical care, the WHSC has established five Comprehensive Centers in cancer, heart, neuroscience, respiratory health, and transplant. In addition to promoting a patient-focused service culture, these interdisciplinary centers are ramping up collaborations between researchers and clinicians to translate research into innovations to benefit patients. Wright Caughman is leading the overall effort, which is already making inroads to transform health and healing. In transplantation, for example, researchers recently garnered $2.5 million from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to develop pig islets for transplant in patients with Type I diabetes.
Quality and Safety
In a wide-reaching initiative, the WHSC has established an office of quality, appointing chief quality officers at its hospitals and clinic. It is drawing on fail-safe systems used in other industries to drive new standards. And EeMR (Emory Electronic Medical Record) continues to make progress through Emory Healthcare to enhance safety and quality.
Health without Borders
The new Global Health Institute (GHI) is working internationally to cure disease, develop vaccines, build health infrastructures, and train scientists and students. Led by Jeff Koplan, the GHI has funding from a number of resources, including $110 million from university resources and $20 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build CDC-like institutions in low-resource countries. The GHI brings together existing strong programs in the schools of public health, nursing, and medicine as well as powerful partner alliances both within and outside Emory. Initiatives include developing AIDS vaccines in India, training African scientists in drug discovery, and addressing health care workforce shortages around the world.
Invented Here
Translating basic science discoveries for practical patient applications continues to drive the WHSC. In the past year alone, our researchers have used progesterone to successfully treat traumatic brain injury and stem cells to regenerate damaged hearts. We've made progress in treating macular degeneration and established a DNA databank for autism, one of only 11 in the country. At the basic science bench, we've found biomarkers for brain tumors, mapped 400,000 insertions and deletions in the human genome, and helped develop a gene-resequencing technique that allows small labs to rapidly and inexpensively compare genetic differences.
In the Black
In 2006, The Emory Clinic continued its upward financial trajectory, enabling the transfer of $25 million to the School of Medicine to support academic programs and departments. In another growth opportunity, Emory Healthcare opened Emory Johns Creek Hospital, a new joint venture health care facility in a newly incorporated city in the metro Atlanta area.
Bedside Manners
With the opening of the new neuro ICU, Emory is testing an emerging model of hospital care where families can stay with patients 24/7 and clinical care is led by intensivists. Both Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown have implemented new medical emergency teams to help save lives by responding rapidly to patients outside the ICU who exhibit warning signs of instability or deterioration.
Key Donor Support
In a record-breaking year, the WHSC raised more than $420 million in gifts and commitments for buildings, programs, and scholarships. The grand total reflects $240 million for a new clinic building, more than $20 million for faculty research and global health programs, $9 million for renovations to the WHSC administration building, more than $4 million for student scholarships, $3 million for predictive health programs, and more than $2.5 million for neuroscience-related programs. In all, donors have funded 12 new endowed chairs.
Preemptive Strike
Marking a major shift in how we approach health, a 5,000-square-foot Center for Health Discovery and Well-Being opens soon at the campus in midtown. The center will identify disease biomarkers in program participants and recommend lifestyle and other interventions to prevent disease before it starts.
At the Push of a Button
In alignment with the university, the WHSC is strengthening information technology (IT) services with a centralized IT network. The effort will enable continuous feedback programs to provide real-time data and allow on-demand sharing of information. A new university computer cluster places Emory in the top echelon of supercomputing sites.
Brick by Brick
Several ambitious building projects are under way. The new medical education building opens this summer. The architectural firm HKS in association with the planning firm of Ayers Saint Gross is leading the building of the new Emory Clinic complex, and the SLAM Collaborative has been chosen to design the public health building. Construction on an imaging center located on the Wesley Woods campus starts this spring.
Research Investment
The university's Office of Research Administration recruited a new vice president and associate vice president and added two new IRB committees, bringing the current total to six. Meanwhile, the Clinical Trials Office added two new positions at the executive director level. All these moves are designed to strengthen research infrastructure as well as to make more clinical trials available to patients.
Children's Alliance
Emory and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta have launched a joint plan for a large, multi-specialty group practice. In addition, Emory physicians will have a presence in a new hospital being built at the site of Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital on the Grady Hospital campus.
