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research/scholarship, and clinical care and service. The college is fully intent on being a "triple threat" medical school which excels in all of the missions. The college, in other words, will not sacrifice any one mission for the sake of the other two. Dean Perman then reported on progress and challenges in advancing each of the missions.
Education. The college oversees postgraduate (residency) training for approximately 500 trainees in diverse medical specialties. The college has recently achieved full five-year accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for its residency programs. In undergraduate medical education, entering medical students have an average MCAT of 29.4, a number which has steadily risen over the last three years. In addition, the medical students on average exceed national first-time pass percentage and scores following the first two years of medical school and perform near average after the fourth year of medical school. Despite more than acceptable performance and subsequent success of the medical students based on national measures, COM faculty are in the midst of a complete reassessment of the curriculum to be certain that it addresses the question "What does it mean to be a doctor?" The faculty is particularly looking for more optimal ways to integrate basic and clinical sciences; to seek as many opportunities as possible for longitudinal learning experiences with specific patients and families across the four years of medical schools; and ways to assure that they are teaching medical students to be nice.
Research. Total contracts and grants have grown from $70 million in 2001 to $122 million in 2005. Percentage-wise, these numbers represent 40.5 percent and 44.5 percent of the total contracts and grants dollars of UK. Thus, the COM understands and is committed to its responsibility to the overall university's ambition to be a Top 20 research university. The College of Medicine has demonstrated, using the metric of NIH dollars, that Top 20 status is absolutely achievable by the institution. Five basic science and four clinical departments (out of 22 total departments) currently enjoy Top 20 status. Furthermore, COM moved from 35th to 31st among public medical schools this past year in total NIH dollars awarded. It is important to realize that, when measured by total NIH dollars per full-time faculty member, the COM already exceeds the level obtained by the 20th-ranked public medical school. Since total NIH dollars is the metric used in ranking medical schools, the COM will grow in stature principally by adding NIH-funded faculty. This represents a principal recruitment strategy. In the past 18 months, NIH-funded investigators have been recruited from Penn, Michigan, University of North Carolina, Penn State, Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and other prestigious medical schools.
Clinical. A number of initiatives, all intended to provide patients with an ideal experience, are under way. In turn, it is expected that enhanced patient satisfaction will further enhance the clinical services, education, and research. COM is embarking on major changes in practice infrastructure such as scheduling and phone services to enhance user-friendliness to patients and referring physicians alike. Changes are under way to develop into a mature group-practice organization geared to optimal service and revenue cycle activities.