Focusing my efforts under UAB Medicine’s Strategic Plan

Several weeks ago, UAB Medicine hosted a mini retreat to launch the AMC21 Reload, a reinvigoration of our plan to be the preferred academic medical center of the 21^st Century. A part of being preferred under AMC21 is commissioning each UAB Medicine employee to be an active owner in achieving this vision. One way to do that is for leaders to share the AMC21 plan with their teams and to incorporate the plan and its four pillars—advancement of knowledge, engagement, finance and quality—into annual goal setting.

Since Dr. Ferniany, Dr. Bonner and I have asked you all to commit as partners in our shared strategic plan, I want to share with you my personal goals under AMC21 to create an enriched environment for engagement, innovation and discovery in the School of Medicine.

• Fully funding the Academic Enrichment Fund. Doing so will support the School of Medicine in achieving most—if not all— of our preferred targets in research, including supporting the five research focus areas; recruitment and retention of talented faculty; and reaching NIH target goals in both the level of funding and the number of investigators.
• Raising the level of student, staff and faculty satisfaction by creating a positive, healthy and enriched learning environment that promotes engagement, innovation and discovery, as well as diversity. My responsibility in the SOM is to nurture this environment and provide resources that help departments, divisions, centers and education programs each achieve their goals and, ultimately, achieve UAB Medicine’s strategic vision.
• Supporting the UAB Health System and clinical departments to be top 10 percent of all University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) hospitals. UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers and their affiliated hospitals and compares participating hospitals against their peers in quality, patient satisfaction, mortality and other factors.
• Creating sustainable, vibrant and nationally-recognized research programs around our 5 research focus areas: Personalized Medicine and Genomics, Informatics, Fundamentals of Basic Science Discovery, Inflammation, Infection and Immunity (I3), and Population Health, Health Disparities and Outcomes and Effectiveness Research.
• Supporting expansion of the UAB Health System to appropriately expand our clinical footprint to address changes in the healthcare environment but also for providing the resources necessary for supporting the Academic Enrichment Fund.
• Re-establishing a national reputation of innovation and outstanding care in cancer, cardiovascular care and transplantation, recognized by U.S. News & World Report.