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Message from the Dean: A progress report on clinical integrationAssociate Dean Cunningham steps down, Dr. Fryer named InterimDr. Jacoby is new Director of MD/PhD programFaculty Feedback: Tenure policy questionFaculty survey results posted Recap: State-of-the-School, Great Debate, real-time polling Update: Pay equity studyDebut of new web-based tool for posting internships Why serve on a School committee? OHSU media coverage for 2007 AAMC Nickens awards - Deadline May 2“Achieving New Heights in Academic Medicine” workshopClarificationDr. Trunkey wins awardOHSU Cancer Institute receives $5 millionDr. Storrs receives AAD Gold MedalDr. Sahni named to federal advisory committeeDr. Keller honoredWelcome New Faculty
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February 2008
Message from Dean Richardson: A progress report on clinical integration
 Greetings and welcome to the February newsletter.
In October, I wrote to you about our goal of integrating the OHSU Medical Group with the School of Medicine and the rationale underlying this transition. Shortly after that, I met with faculty in all clinical departments to gather input on this topic. Since that time, I am pleased to report that substantial progress has been made on clinical integration.
Five faculty task forces convened by OHSUMG leadership in early December have worked diligently over the last two months to explore the legal and tactical details related to governance, operations, funds flow, compensation and retirement plans, and to develop recommendations on all these topics. The task forces presented their recommendations to the OHSU Executive Leadership Team (ELT) on February 12.
The task force work proceeded from three integration priorities defined early on by President Robertson and the ELT. These were:
1) Faculty will be employed solely by OHSU for their clinical and academic activity;
2) Clinical revenues will be billed for the account of, and will belong to, the clinical units within the OHSU Schools, and;
3) Oversight of the Clinical Practice will reside with the Dean and the Clinical Chairs, or their designees.
As reported by the Legal Task Force, a key initial question was to decide between one of two identified organizational models that would meet the priorities – 1) the “Vanderbilt” model which involved dissolution of OHSUMG and creation of a faculty practice within clinical departments; or 2) the “Colorado” model which would retain OHSUMG as an entity but modify its governance structure to transfer control to the university, including a transfer of clinical oversight to the School of Medicine Dean and the Clinical Chairs.
As the Legal Task Force was evaluating an organizational model, the other task forces were working on derivative concerns, including recommendations on the details of compensation and pension plans. However, due to the compressed time frame and the parallel evaluation of the legal model, not all of the recommendations are mutually workable. Consequently, additional effort is now underway to knit together the various recommendations into a workable whole, and details will be forthcoming. To view individual task force reports on the OZONE, click here.
Discussions about how and when to change the OHSUMG bylaws are beginning now. Clinical faculty members should look for additional information about this process soon. This coming month, I will hold a leadership planning session with the Clinical Chairs to outline our collective expectations and goals for the integrated practice. As we move forward, I don’t expect that individual faculty members will experience noticeable changes associated with integration on a day-to-day basis. Rather, any changes will be incremental and intended to help balance mission goals most effectively and efficiently – for individuals and for the institution.
This has been a good process. Clinical faculty members and OHSUMG leaders worked together to develop recommendations under a challenging time frame. Now, as we move into the transition phase, we will continue to work together with equal diligence. My thanks to everyone involved.
Best regards,
Mark Richardson
Dean
Associate Dean Chris Cunningham steps down, Allison Fryer, PhD, named Interim
 Chris Cunningham, PhD, will step down from his position as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, effective immediately. Dean Mark Richardson has appointed Allison Fryer, PhD, as Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.
“Chris has provided enormous leadership and wisdom in his position as Associate Dean. Under his watchful eye and careful management, the graduate studies program has made significant strides. He will be greatly missed,” said Dean Richardson.
Dr. Cunningham, a Professor in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, is also affiliated with the Neuroscience Graduate Program. He will continue in these responsibilities with a renewed focus on research. “My plan is to spend more time working with the students in my lab and to focus on a backlog of yet-to-be-written research papers,” said Dr. Cunningham. His research interests include the neurobiological and genetic mechanisms of drug reward, animal models of relapse and Pavlovian conditioning.
Dr. Cunningham has been Associate Dean for Graduate Studies since 2003. During his tenure, he oversaw a major revision of the curriculum and was instrumental in developing bylaws for the innovative integrated Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (PMCB). Dr. Cunningham directed several reviews of the graduate studies program’s policies and procedures, which resulted in enhancements to the bylaws and program operations. He helped the Portland chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation (ARCS) establish a program that has since provided scholarships for more than 30 OHSU graduate students over the last three years. He has also been very successful in strengthening and stabilizing funding for the graduate studies program.
Dr. Fryer is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, and since 2006, has served as the PMCB Director. She received her PhD from the University of London in 1986, was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. In 1990, she joined Johns Hopkins University where she rose to the rank of Professor before joining OHSU in 2003. Dr. Fryer's research is focused on how interactions between inflammatory cells and peripheral nerves cause the airway hyperreactivity characteristic of asthma.
Dr. Fryer is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and a permanent member of the Lung Cellular, Molecular, and Immunobiology Study Section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has trained over 20 graduate and postdoctoral students, many of whom are now in faculty positions. As PMCB Director she initiated “speed dating” to match students and mentors at the PMCB Retreat and created the Director’s Award given annually to a first-year student.
“Allison is well-prepared for this leadership position in the School of Medicine. I look forward to her contributions to the graduate studies program, and appreciate her willingness to step into this role,” said Dean Richardson.
“I love being director of PMCB and will miss the personal interactions with those students,” said Dr. Fryer. “But I also feel very fortunate to be stepping into a position that has been so well developed under Chris’s leadership.”
Among other goals, Dr. Fryer plans to continue building databases that support training grants, further develop the level of collaboration among programs, facilitate recruitment of students, including underrepresented populations, into graduate programs and developing mechanisms to track and reward individual faculty contributions to teaching.
David Jacoby, MD, named Director of MD/PhD program
 David Jacoby, MD, has been appointed Director of the School of Medicine’s MD/PhD Program. Dr. Jacoby is Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Pharmacology, and Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, the Edwards Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and the Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine. He is also a Deputy Director of the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI).
Dr. Jacoby’s appointment follows a search process chaired by Associate Dean for Medical Education Edward Keenan, PhD, with significant involvement from current MD/PhD students.
“David brings an extraordinarily multi-faceted expertise and experience to this leadership position. His involvement with OCTRI will support unique collaborative opportunities for our students, which will undoubtedly enrich their future as the national emphasis on clinician-scientists continues to grow,” said Dean Mark Richardson.
Dr. Jacoby received his MD from New York Medical College and completed a medical residency and chief residency at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia. He was a pulmonary fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. From 1988 to 1990, he was on faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. From 1990 to 2003, he was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, where he became a Professor, served as Research Director of the Pulmonary Division, and was a member of the “Firm Faculty,” an appointment made in recognition of his efforts in teaching house staff. He joined the OHSU faculty in 2003, where he has continued to be recognized for his involvement with house staff teaching. His research focuses on viral infections of the lungs and how they cause asthma attacks.
Dr. Jacoby is very excited about directing this program. “We have outstanding students, really the best, and this year’s applicants continue that tradition. The laboratory experiences OHSU offers are as good as any I’ve seen. On top of that, the clinical and translational research opportunities presented through OCTRI and elsewhere at OHSU make this an exciting time to expand the scope of MD/PhD student research. I’m very lucky and honored to work with the students and faculty of the MD/PhD program.”
Faculty Feedback: Will changes in the School of Medicine affect tenure policy or existing agreements?
The short answer: No. Tenure policy and current agreements will not be affected by the transitions underway in the School of Medicine. These transitions are for purposes of better aligning ourselves to meet Vision 2020 goals and to address the financial impact of the tort cap decision; they do not impact tenure policy. Click here to view the current tenure policy on the OZONE. As with all formal policies in the School of Medicine, any change to the current tenure policy would follow a prescribed process involving the review of the Faculty Council and the University Policy Advisory Committee. Please contact Nicole Lockart, Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs & Administration, at lockartn@ohsu.edu, with your specific questions or concerns.
Faculty survey results posted on School Web site
 A letter from Associate Dean Patricia Hurn about the 2007 survey
Dear Colleagues:
A recommendation of the School's 2007 Faculty Engagement Committee was to improve the metrics by which we evaluate faculty satisfaction and engagement. One goal was to improve the language and content of our faculty survey questions. We accomplished that in the latest survey which included questions on faculty demographics, departmental affiliations, and queries about university leadership, communication with chairs and division chiefs and equity in faculty life. My thanks to the faculty committee and colleagues from Human Resources for their careful work in creating this survey tool.
In October 2007, we launched the revamped Second Annual Faculty Satisfaction Survey. The results are summarized and posted on the School's strategic planning web page. To view the results: click here. In addition, detailed sub-reports for each department were provided to all chairs in January. I encourage faculty to contact their Chairs and "drill into" satisfaction metrics at the departmental level.
My thanks to the approximately 400 faculty members who completed the two-part survey. The respondents were men and women in equal proportions, largely Assistant Professors (31 percent) and Professors (30 percent). One of the areas consistently identified as important to faculty satisfaction was quality of our colleagues and students. Please peruse the data for areas in which we can all improve faculty engagement within the missions of OHSU.
I believe that we need multiple measures of our quality of faculty life, and the annual survey is only one of them. We will continue to improve this tool but we must also at least double the faculty response rate next year. I urge you to take a moment to complete the survey when it pops up in your email box next fall. Speak your mind!
Patricia D. Hurn, PhD
Associate Dean, Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs
Recap: State-of-the-School, Great Debate, real-time polling
Results show majority do not favor adoption of clinical faculty series
On Valentine's Day, Dean Mark Richardson convened the annual all-faculty meeting with a brief "State-of-the-School" presentation. The Dean focused on the tremendous accomplishments of the faculty in the past year in all mission areas. He also discussed the challenges ahead due to the “quiet revolution” in our external environment – factors such as health care reform, shifting external funding priorities, the tort cap decision and workforce shortages.
At the meeting, Drs. Lynn Loriaux (pro) and Scott Fields (con) debated the adoption of a new clinical faculty series – one part of a new faculty promotion and tenure (PT) policy. Recently approved by the Provost's office and Faculty Senate, the new policy creates uniformity of faculty appointments and PT processes across higher education institutions in Oregon. The School of Medicine has some flexibility in deciding how to reconcile its existing policy with this new one – in particular, to determine if it should be aligned with the new clinical series. The clinical series would provide an alternative avenue for PT of faculty with strengths in the clinical mission rather than research and teaching. Click here here for the Dean's presentation slides and an audio file of the “Great Debate.”
Following the debate, faculty members were asked a series of questions to gauge their views on the debate and appointment policy. A real-time electronic polling system which supports anonymous responses and immediately compiles the data for visual display was successfully debuted at the meeting for this purpose. The poll results indicated a majority of those present do NOT favor adoption of the clinical series.
Additional faculty input on this issue is now requested. Do you favor the adoption of clinical faculty series? Click here to review the draft policy and poll results, and provide your feedback to Nicole Lockart, Assistant Dean of Faculty Affairs & Administration, at lockartn@ohsu.edu.
Update: School of Medicine pay equity study
OHSU engaged a nationally recognized consultant last year to assist the School of Medicine in conducting a confidential review and analysis of issues concerning pay equity between faculty members. The review focused on potential compensation differentials based on gender and ethnicity.
The Office of the Dean has appointed a small task force to review the consultant's report and to work on next steps. This work is now underway. Our plan at this time is to address any significant disparities, if found, on a one-on-one basis with individual faculty and to construct a process for monitoring and ensuring equity in future compensation decisions and reviews. For reasons related to the privacy of individual faculty members as well as the interests of the University, the report is not intended for broad dissemination.
Debut of new web-based tool for posting internships
Faculty and staff involved in outreach and mentoring programs now have an additional web-based tool to help broaden their reach into high school, undergraduate and post-undergraduate audiences. A Web page was launched this month as part of the new Outreach section of OHSU’s Web site: click here.
Spearheaded by the Office of the Dean, the public facing Web page allows students to search for internship opportunities in a centralized manner, without having to contact each lab or clinic individually. Similarly, it allows audiences that don’t know who to call or who don’t have established contacts at OHSU to become newly engaged with our faculty and staff. As a result, this tool broadens outreach and supports equitable access to information and opportunities.
The Web page provides information about programs that enroll students in formal courses of study or mentorship. A second component features non program-based, informal internships and volunteer opportunities available at OHSU, including – but not limited to – those based in research lab settings.
Over time, the site will be self-supporting -- meaning faculty and staff will have access to post their own information. During this initial phase, however, send your internship information for posting to Mark Kemball at kemballm@ohsu.edu. Administrative guidance is also available for those offering an internship slot for the first time.
Why serve on a School of Medicine committee?
The Committee on Committees meets on Friday, March 7, to review nominations and propose members for the School of Medicine’s committees. Following is a Q&A with Susan Hayflick, MD, Professor, Molecular and Medical Genetics, and Chair of the Committee on Committees, about the role of committees in the School’s governance structure.
Q: How does the Committee on Committees support the School’s governance?
A: The Committee on Committees plays a pivotal role in making sure that a wide variety of faculty voices and opinions are represented on the School’s 11 volunteer committees. Our charter requires us to be active in seeking out candidates who bring a breadth of experience, background and thought to committee work. We collect names of faculty to serve on School committees and make recommendations to the Dean, who appoints members.
Q: How do the various committees support the School’s mission?
A: These committees serve as the “brain trust” for specific areas of the School’s mission, driving the ongoing work in their field, setting the course for innovation and responding to internal and external environmental changes.
Q: Why should faculty members become involved?
A: Committee service is one way for faculty members to expand their awareness of the School’s activities, as well as to educate fellow committee members about the work being done within their own department or area. Serving on a committee sometimes brings a fresh perspective to a faculty member’s thinking on a subject and creates a personal network whose benefits extend far outside the work of the committee. Committee service is also one of the things that the Promotion and Tenure Committee consider.
Q: What should faculty members know about selection?
A: The hardest part for me as Chair is being unable to find a place for everyone who is nominated or volunteers. If I had to choose one thing for faculty to know, it would be to keep volunteering because you will eventually be asked to serve.
Q: How can I find out more about the various committees?
A: The School’s website contains information about the current committees and their charters: click here. If there is a particular committee whose work interests you, I encourage you to discuss its work with the committee chair. To volunteer or nominate, contact Vera Lewis at lewisve@ohsu.edu.
OHSU media tracking expands to internet coverage
OHSU had more than 8,700 known media mentions in 2007, appearing in the media an average of 24 times a day. Beginning in June, OHSU began tracking Internet media coverage, including blogs. Since June, 37 percent of media coverage was online, and almost 80 percent of that coverage was on news Web sites. Newspapers accounted for 30 percent of media coverage and TV news accounted for almost 20 percent of media coverage. Half of OHSU media coverage was in the Portland metropolitan area. News about OHSU research accounted for 27 percent of media coverage; news about clinical care and innovations, including patient stories, accounted for 25 percent; the business of OHSU covered 21 percent; our experts were quoted in 13 percent; and the remaining was spread out over multiple smaller categories. Excluding internet-only coverage, media coverage in 2007 was about the same amount as 2006.
AAMC Nickens awards - Deadline May 2
The AAMC is soliciting nominations for the annual Herbert W. Nickens award, fellowship and scholarships. The Nickens Award recognizes contributions that promote justice in medical education and health care. The Nickens Faculty Fellowship recognizes a junior faculty member who has demonstrated leadership in addressing inequities in medical education and health care. The Nickens Medical Student Scholarships are for entering third-year students who have demonstrated leadership in addressing the educational, societal, and health care needs of minorities. For more information: click here.
Workshop: “Achieving New Heights in Academic Medicine”
Open to both OHSU and external faculty, this career enhancement workshop is organized by John Ma, MD, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, in collaboration with the Office of the Dean. The workshop is for those with an interest in pursuing future leadership opportunities at the department chair, medical school dean, or senior hospital administration level.
Date: July 18
Fee (includes CME credit): OHSU faculty $50; non-OHSU faculty $200
For more information: Brian Secrest, 503-494-6055, secrestb@ohsu.edu
Clarification
The January issue of this newsletter indicated that research in the School of Nursing would be integrated into the School of Medicine. This has not been decided and there are no current plans to do this. Rather, discussions and evaluations are ongoing throughout OHSU to develop plans for how basic science facilities and/or units could best be organized to support basic science research.
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